Major spoilers ahead. 

Girls & Boys is the latest production in Sydney Theatre Company’s 2026 season and is another production this year where Artistic Director Mitchell Butel is taking the directorial helm, directing a one-woman show starring fellow former Play School co-star Justine Clarke, who has recently been in the Australian theatre spotlight through her starring role in Julia. This is another one-woman play for Clarke but vastly different in tone and timbre.

Following the life of a woman who meets a man on a travel romance, which ultimately leads to their marriage and starting a life together, the woman shares experiences with her two children throughout the show although as the show progresses, it becomes clear that not all is as it may seem.

The rest of this review contains major spoilers so if you have not seen the play, I would advise that you stop reading here as it is largely impossible to review this production without exposing major plot points.

Ultimately, this is a play that centres around the tragic concept of familial annihilation. This is something that is very much in the public consciousness at the moment, with the awful news from up in the Blue Mountains, as well as the Lindsay Clancy story that is going through the United States. It takes an incredible actress to pull this production off and Justine Clarke does an incredible job. Signposting what is to come just enough to keep the audience hooked and engaged, while also conveying the sincerity of the protagonist and making the audience connect with her, Clarke’s performance is powerful and emotional and most of the audience were in tears by the end of the play. It is one of the most powerful works of theatre that I’ve seen on Australian stages and it had a profound impact on everyone in the room. To illuminate this, on the ‘Night with the Artists’ Q&A following, Butel explained that he instructed the ushers to let people sit and reflect on the play for some time after the show rather than ushering everyone out of the theatre due to the extreme emotional content that the show conveys.

I’ve taken some time to consider how I would write this review and what my thoughts are. Notwithstanding what I’ve said above about the power and profundity of this play, I hold some concerns about the appropriateness of presenting it, especially when considering the impact that it can have on victim survivors of domestic violence. While domestic violence is becoming unfortunately an ever-present part of the public consciousness in Australia and one of our greatest crises as a nation, there has to be some recognition of the triggering impact that dealing with themes like family annihilation can have on victim survivors.

While domestic violence is often explored in plays, familial annihilation is a different level of trauma and one that an audience must be appropriately prepared for. The trigger warning for this play mentions strong language and depictions of family violence but this does not go to the heart of what occurs in this play and I don’t think can be considered an adequate trigger warning for what the audience sees.

While maintaining some element of surprise is somewhat necessary to convey the effect of the play at its most successful, this must be balanced against the health and safety of the audience and I do worry that this didn’t quite go as far as it needed to.

The ‘Night with the Artists’ Q&A afterwards was illuminating in understanding how Butel and Clarke have dealt with this dilemma, with Butel admitting that in light of what had happened in the Blue Mountains, there was a discussion on whether it was appropriate to continue the play but I think that this issue perhaps goes beyond that. I understand that there have been times when the play has had to stop due to audience reactions being so immense and I think this is definitely something of concern as it just shows the immensity of the work. While the contextual framing before the graphic reveal at the end of the show is helpful in this regard, it is just another level and something that audiences really should be aware of before they enter the show.

Overall, there is no doubt that this is an incredible show, and full commendations must go to Justine Clarke for her acting, Mitchell Butel for his directing and for the incredible writing of Dennis Kelly. For those who feel as though they can get through this play, it is an incredibly profound and moving watch and definitely eye-opening to just how easy it is for something like this to occur. With that said, I do have concerns about the psychological safety of this play and I think that greater trigger warnings and some reframing of material would go some way to making sure that this theatre was both challenging for the audience but also move towards a safe space, cognisant of the trauma that many victim survivors feel when issues like this arise at a bare minimum. However, even so, there are some topics that might just be too much for the stage and this may be one of them.

Rating: ★★★★1/2

Girls and Boys plays at the Wharf 1 Theatre until 1 November. For more information, click here.  

Photo credit: Sam Roberts