Photo: Ben Andrews
It is the biggest night of Melbourne’s academic calendar, the Grand Finale of the Year 12 Interschool Debating Tournament, and the all-boys team from the elite St Imperium College are ready to totally annihilate their sister school – until…
Performed by a female and non-binary cast (Myfanwy Hocking, Fran Sweeney-Nash, Kidaan Zelleke and Tahlia Jamieson) in drag, the show unfolds in real time as the boys are locked in a classroom for their one-hour prep window, and forced to argue that “feminism has failed women”.
This riotously funny satire looks at insecure adolescent masculinity, entitlement and the ego of Australia’s next generation of politicians and powerbrokers. Through playwright Emmanuelle Mattana’s queer, satirical lense, Trophy Boys unveils the dark undercurrents of male privilege and power.
Playwright Emmanuelle Mattana’s debut work Trophy Boys will tour for a third consecutive year in 2026 after sold-out audiences, critical acclaim and award recognition; Sydney Theatre Award’s Best New Australian Work, BroadwayWorld Australia’s Best New Play in Melbourne and Best Performance for VCE Theatre Studies Students after its inclusion on the Victorian high school curriculum.
Mattana is an actor, writer and theatre maker, passionate about blending playful and political stories. She is known on screen for her lead role playing Marnie in Emmy-nominated Mustangs FC (ABCMe x Matchbox Pictures); she also appeared in The Messenger (ABC), Surviving Summer, Clickbait (Netflix) and Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (Acorn TV).
Mattana was a teenager when she decided to find her power in the arts.
“As a competitive high school debater I spent a lot of time with the ‘good boys’; the clever, morally-upstanding boys from elite private schools who were destined for the highest offices of power… But the very nature of the endeavour – turning argument into sport while believing yourself the smartest in any room – required you fervently argue things you didn’t know enough about or even necessarily believe,” she said.
“Logic was a game, something to be won or lost, and words and arguments were things you could twist at your own whim. If you were articulate and commanding enough you could speak over anyone, or for anyone. It was no wonder this ethos seeped so dangerously into other parts of these boys’ lives. Even as a teenager I recognised a deep and frightening wound here – both in the harm these boys perpetrated as well as in the fabric of the very power that they would soon inherit – that I couldn’t quite articulate… So I quit debating and ran away to become an artist and hang out with other queer weirdos who helped me imagine a braver, more radical future. Trophy Boys is for my teenage self.”
Off the back of a sold out national tour, Trophy Boys performs in regional South Australia before arriving at the Space Theatre in Adelaide 17 March – 2 April.
17 March – 2 April 2026
Space Theatre,
Adelaide Festival Centre
statetheatrecompany.com.au
