New Boy

Synopsis

An adaptation of the best-selling William Sutcliffe novel of the same title. All is not easy for sixth former Mark in his North London boys secondary school and his sexual identity is sent hay wire with the arrival of a 'new boy', Barry - who soon has most of the teachers and pupils male and female, under his spell. Mark sets about helping his new best friend to conquer the girls school as a means of researching the opposite sex meanwhile dealing with his own growing attraction to Barry. The hormonally charged world of the male adolescent is very well presented in this will they/won't they, is he/isn't he comedy which directly addresses the complexity of people's emotional and physical reactions to each other.

Our Review:

20 March 2009

William Sutcliffe’s 1996 novel was first adapted for the stage by director Russell Labey in 2000, so it’s been knocking around for some time. But you can’t fault the notion that it might make a suitable vehicle for Nicholas Hoult, who plays Tony in E4’s teen drama Skins on television.

Whereas Tony, as Hoult tells What's on Stage magazine this month, was manipulative and knew how to deal with other people, Mark in New Boy is insecure inside his own skin, obsessed with his burgeoning sexuality but unclear how to express it and gawkily ill at ease in social situations.

Hoult conveys all this very well in a play that still seems contrived and over-schematic. And there’s a rather unpleasant explicit edge to it, too, which is different from saying it’s brave or outspoken. We first see Mark giving a classroom talk (why?) on the female genitalia, a speech that is couched in terms of revulsi...

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