Reviews
Reviews
UK Theatre Web: 10Feb01: 
New Boy is a refreshing new comedy adapted from the book of the same name by William Sutcliffe.
Brilliantly adapted by Russell Labey, and excellently performed by a young, energetic, and talented cast.
His script though peppered with strong language, more often than not of a sexual nature, brings a wonderful insight to the life of a hormonally charged, adolencent boy and his stuggle to lose his virginity
The play is set in the 80`s and follows the life of Mark, a sixth form schoolboy in a North London school and his attempt to befriend a new pupil, the enigmatic Barry.
This leads to Mark to introducing his new friend to the female members of the school, including their French teacher, Mrs Mumford ,with whom Barry has an affair much to to Mark`s disgust.
Neil Henry brilliantly plays Mark, who links the various scenes together with a witty narrative, while Leon Pariss plays his new found friend Barry, who entrances all those around him, including Mark, and forces Mark to confront his homophobia in a suprising twist at the end.
The supporting cast also put in an dazzling show with Clare Buckfield, who plays Barry`s older sister Louise, as well as several other parts, including a girl in a disco who the hapless Mark tries to pick up with unexpected results.
The other cast members are Josh Neale, who plays Dan, Marks older brother, and Heather Wright as Mrs Mumford, the French teacher who Barry seduces and moves in with for a short while, much to Barry`s disgust.
This play is a must see and though there is no interval, the 90 minutes it runs, the time flies by.
New Boy is a surefire hit and well worth seeing.
By Andrew Startup
User Reviews
USER: UK Theatre Web (10Feb01): New Boy is a refreshing new comedy adapted from the book of the same name by William Sutcliffe.
Brilliantly adapted by Russell Labey, and excellently performed by a young, energetic, and talented cast.
His script though peppered with strong language, more often than not of a sexual nature, brings a wonderful insight to the life of a hormonally charged, adolencent boy and his stuggle to lose his virginity
The play is set in the 80`s and follows the life of Mark, a sixth form schoolboy in a North London school and his attempt to befriend a new pupil, the enigmatic Barry.
This leads to Mark to introducing his new friend to the female members of the school, including their French teacher, Mrs Mumford ,with whom Barry has an affair much to to Mark`s disgust.
Neil Henry brilliantly plays Mark, who links the various scenes together with a witty narrative, while Leon Pariss plays his new found friend Barry, who entrances all those around him, including Mark, and forces Mark to confront his homophobia in a suprising twist at the end.
The supporting cast also put in an dazzling show with Clare Buckfield, who plays Barry`s older sister Louise, as well as several other parts, including a girl in a disco who the hapless Mark tries to pick up with unexpected results.
The other cast members are Josh Neale, who plays Dan, Marks older brother, and Heather Wright as Mrs Mumford, the French teacher who Barry seduces and moves in with for a short while, much to Barry`s disgust.
This play is a must see and though there is no interval, the 90 minutes it runs, the time flies by.
New Boy is a surefire hit and well worth seeing.
By Andrew Startup
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.
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