by Michael Gray Griffith

How did we reach a point where a play about three young straight males lost out at sea could be seen as theatrically dangerous?

One reason is, our young men have borne the brunt of a full-on attack against masculinity.

Try attaching the word ‘toxic’ to any other demographic, and see how you fare.

And it’s not just from women. I hear so many men my age desecrating these young men, calling them lazy, soft and disrespectful. A younger generation of males who seem to have no respect for us.

But why should they respect us? What have we done for them?

Lost at Sea

One of the actors was telling us how when he was in school, women were addressing their assemblies, and in front of the female students, declared that all the young males there were rapists! And this wasn’t an isolated event. It was wearing away at their worth, by using the tool of shame.

This was the premise for this new play, My Brother, My Brother, My Brother — a play for our sons that celebrates the forgotten beauty of masculinity, starring Odysseus, Joshua Bruce and Tom Dray.

Three young men wake up on a small disabled fishing boat, that is drifting further and further out to sea. All their phones are missing, the radio has been broken, and they cannot see land, nor any search planes or boats. It appears they were drugged and have now woken up alone and in a perilous situation.

Initially, the play appears to be a simple survival story, but as time passes, the play lifts a mirror and asks us all one question: If we treat, or do nothing as the state treats our young men, the ones who will breed the new generation of Australians, as if they should be ashamed of their very existence, what do you think will happen to their souls?

The play is funny, tense, and full of colourful language, and it is also explores the qualities of courage, stoicism and mateship.

Courage

When I wrote it, which was just a few months ago, I thought I’d never find a theatre who would host us, or actors who would be brave enough to risk being cancelled by acting in a ‘non-woke’ play.

Instead, I found both. One Australian actor living abroad who read the script wanted to fly back from Canada — just to audition! And another actor flew in from South Australia for auditions.

The South Australian actor is now staging his own version over there. The actors who did secure roles, are determined to tell the story regardless of potential social ramifications.

Currently, we are in rehearsals, and it is an honour to work with these three talented, courageous artists as we not only try to stage a brand-new play, but market it in a woke environment, in the hope that we find an audience.

Since the characters are all heroic, my dream is that people would bring their sons to the theatre, and their sons would feel that just by listening to these three young men, that they are also being heard.

Proudly Supported by The Alex Theatre and produced by The Wolves Theatre Company, the premiere was on the 18th of September at the Alex Theatre.

To book tickets, go to the Alex Theatre website here.

My Brother, My Brother, My Brother
30 October — 2 November 2024,
7:30 PM — 9:30 PM

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Republished with thanks to A Sense of Place. Image courtesy of Adobe.