‘Boy Girl Wall’ is an interesting concept in that one of the protagonists is what we would normally class as an inanimate object, in this case made animate by the extraordinary acting skills of Lucas Stibbert who also plays the Girl and the Boy of the title and everything else in this one man play.
I recently spoke to Lucas Stibbert of ‘The Escapists’ prior to his bringing the production to Tasmania. While he is in Tassie Lucas plans to do some walking, exploring the North West and Launceston areas he hasn’t explored before.
Boy Girl Wall is a play about barriers to romance and to living the way one wants to. Our two protagonists Thom and Alethea are would be lovers, stuck in the rut of jobs they don’t necessarily desire and the wall that divides instead causes them to collide.
Lucas is quick to say although this is a story about love it’s not a love story in that there are no Jane Austen moments such as Mr Darcy rising newly baptised in the art of romance from the waters. There is however a suggestion that the story could end in happy ever after.
Lucas says there are often physical barriers used in theatre that are metaphorical too and are signified for example by the wall between Pyramus and Thisbe, and in the similar tale of Romeo and Juliet with one of the barriers being Juliet’s balcony.
Stibbert stages his one man show with a modicum of props. Those that are used, are a projector and drawings with chalk and somewhere in the mix we have an evil magpie who has stolen away the eye of a Scottish taxi driver but you will have to see the play to have that explained!
At the moment the play is the thing for this multi-talented actor but it’s quite possible his old potential career path of architecture, (that is a prominent part of this production), may prove the conscience of this king of theatre and he may take up architecture as a career sometime in the future.
Boy Girl Wall plays at The Theatre Royal August 1 to 4.
Paula Xiberras
