Poor Boy

The beautiful new MTC. There are actually words punctuated along the wall (click to enlarge photo).


Poor Boy - Image taken from the Melbourne Theatre Company. That is Guy Pearce looking a little like Chris Martin from Coldplay.

Carrying on the theme this year of new experiences, I went to the Melbourne Theatre Company for the first time ever to watch a play. The building itself was fairly new, and Poor Boy was meant to showcase the new theatre. Although plays can be a hit and miss sometimes, I am glad to report that Poor Boy was actually quite a hit.

Written by Matt Cameron and Tim Finn, this was a multilayered examination of two families in various states of dysfunction, both families' path crossing with a supernatural occurence when one family's dead son inhabits the body of the other family's seven year old boy.

Guy Pearce (of Memento fame) performed really well and had an outstanding singing voice (who would've thought it!) but the rest of the cast really carried the show as well. It was a really symbolic and detailed scrutiny of the sins of favoritism within the family, children filling in the void of absent parents, the desperate search for approval and belonging within the family, and the resolution of grief over the loss of a loved one.

The music suited the play's atmosphere, with a live six piece band providing the mood, but this song was distinctly good from the play:



All in all, it was a really good experience, and recommended to anyone in search of a mirror reflecting our lives.

(Day seats at $ 16 dollars - 8 seats per day if you get to MTC at nine a.m. Worth waking up for!)