{{Short description|Play by Louis Nowra}} {{Use Australian English|date=August 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox play | name = The Marvellous Boy | image = | image_size = | caption = | writer = [[Louis Nowra]] | characters = | setting = | premiere = 13 October 2005 | place = [[Griffin Theatre Company|Griffin Theatre]], Sydney | orig_lang = English | subject = | genre = Melodrama }}
[[File:SydneyAMPTower gobeirne.jpg|thumb|right|The top of the [[Sydney Tower]], where the play's first scene is set]] [[File:East0044.jpg|thumb|right|The main street of [[Kings Cross, New South Wales|Kings Cross]], where most of the play is set]] '''''The Marvellous Boy''''' is a play by Australian playwright [[Louis Nowra]],<ref name=Austlit>{{cite web|title= Austlit — ''The Marvellous Boy'' by Louis Nowra |publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C550604|access-date= 1 August 2025}}</ref> the second part of the [[Boyce trilogy]].<ref>{{cite web|title= ''The Boyce Trilogy'' by Louis Nowra|publisher= Austlit|url=https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C550603|access-date= 1 August 2025}}</ref> It is set in [[Sydney]], particularly in [[Kings Cross, New South Wales|Kings Cross]].
It was first performed at the [[SWB Stables]] on 13 October 2005 by the [[Griffin Theatre Company]] with the following cast:
*Luke: [[Toby Schmitz]] *Malcolm Boyce, his father: [[Danny Adcock]] *Ray: Anthony Phelan *Victor/Bain Cipolla: [[Bruce Spence]] *Esther: Susie Lindeman
The production: *Director: [[David Berthold]] *Designer: Nicholas Dare *Lighting designer: Matt Marshall
== Sources == Some of the characters have similarities to well-known people in Sydney, such as the Moran family. Esther's plight resembles that of [[Juanita Nielsen]] in the 1970s. Ray has suggestions of businessman [[Abe Saffron]] and his partner Jim Anderson, who did die of bird flu. In his Introduction to the text, director [[David Berthold]] also compares Malcolm to property developer Frank Theeman (p. x). But such similarities are so numerous and diverse that the play is clearly no ''[[roman à clef]]''.
== Critical reception ==
Stephen Dunne, writing for ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'' had reservations about the play: "Perhaps it's a middle section of the trilogy problem, but this play feels very thin. There are some cliched ideas, the characters don't really go anywhere, and the conclusion (after the needless and momentum-sapping interval) will surprise few."<ref>{{cite web|title=The Marvellous Boy |date= 15 October 2005|publisher= The Sydney Morning Herald|url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/the-marvellous-boy-20051015-gdm94y.html|access-date= 1 August 2025}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
== Notes == * Nowra, Louis, ''The Boyce trilogy'', Sydney: Currency Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-86819-798-2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marvellous Boy, The}} [[Category:Plays by Louis Nowra]] [[Category:2005 plays]] [[Category:Plays set in Australia]] [[Category:Sydney in fiction]]