There is something gloriously unhinged about a play that describes itself as scary, sexy and stupid. Anthony Nocera’s debut full-length work Log Boy delivers on all three counts, wrapping grief, gay history and horror tropes into a theatrical experience that promises to be as tender as it is outrageous.
The world premiere arrives at AC Arts Main Theatre from 1 to 10 October, presented as part of State Theatre Company South Australia’s SPARK program. The cast is formidable: Paul Capsis leads alongside Elena Carapetis, Anthony Nicola, Chris Asimos and Paul Reichstein, with direction by Riley Spadaro.
Set on the eve of a funeral, the play sees two generations of gay men confronting spectres both literal and metaphorical. What begins as a dark comedy about loss evolves into something more visceral, with a murderous Leather Daddy haunting proceedings.
Born from real conversations
The genesis of Log Boy lies in the conversations Nocera witnessed between his late fiancé Jamie Anderson and Jamie’s best friend Justin. Their weekly exchanges were hilarious and scandalous, but threaded through with something darker.
“When I sat with both of them, I was in stitches,” Nocera recalls. “They were the funniest, smartest and most entertaining people I’d ever met. But their conversations were always inevitably tinged with loss and the experiences they shared living through the height of the AIDS crisis. There was a haunting quality to that time.”
Nocera, who came of age after that era, found his understanding of it filtered through cinema: the horror films and leather-clad menace of William Friedkin’s Cruising. “I realised that my experience of that time was theoretical,” he says. “So I started writing a big, scary play that saw three gay men haunted by a spectre of a murderous Leather Daddy.”
A play transformed by grief
When Jamie passed away unexpectedly in 2022, Log Boy became something more personal. The theoretical became visceral.
“Grief is a slippery thing. A scary thing. When you lose someone, you live among ghosts,” Nocera says. “I wrote Log Boy after work every night, often with Jamie sleeping next to me. Writing it and having his words woven through the script felt like I was able to hold onto him in a small way.”
The months following Jamie’s death were the first time Nocera found himself laughing again. “Working on Log Boy in the months immediately after he passed were the first time that I really laughed, which is the best way to navigate tricky emotional terrain, I think.”
A playwright to watch
In development since 2021, the script has already collected accolades. It was shortlisted for the Jill Blewett Playwright’s Award and longlisted for the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award. Earlier this year, Nocera won the Midsumma Festival Queer Playwriting Award.
State Theatre Company Artistic Director Petra Kalive calls Nocera one of Australian theatre’s most exciting new voices. “Log Boy is raw, raucous, outrageous and tender,” she says. “It’s exciting writing that plays with genre in delightful and surprising ways. An unforgettable work that made me laugh and wince and left me a little bit haunted.”
The SPARK program, which supports independent South Australian theatre-makers, is producing Log Boy as its second presentation. For Nocera, who began his career at State Theatre in arts marketing in 2018, returning as an artist feels surreal.
“It’s such a huge honour to be returning to State as an artist,” he says. “And to be given the licence to really pop off and lean into the more ridiculous aspects of the work is something we’re pumped about. It’s going to be vicious and fun and totally killer.”
The details
Log Boy runs from 1 to 10 October at Adelaide College of the Arts Main Theatre. The creative team includes set and costume designer Meg Wilson, lighting designer Chris Petridis and composer Jason Sweeney.
Tickets and session times:
statetheatrecompany.com.au
Follow Fifty+SA on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
