IRL
by Lewis Treston
Being a gay 17-year-old cosplayer with a mild Disney Princess obsession, a TV celebrity as a best friend and a first date with a shy guy you met online takes awkward to the next level.
IRL is fairytale meets fanfiction in the quest for ‘happily ever after’. It is a fierce and funny reflection of what it means to be a teenager searching for friendship, love and acceptance and trying to find your community.
Alexei and his long-time internet crush, Thaddeus, are about to meet IRL (in real life) at the Supanova pop culture convention. In a moment of regrettable self-sabotage, Alexei assumes a false identity to test the authenticity of his would-be boyfriend. When Alexei’s best friend Taylor begins channelling the anti-capitalist vigilante superhero she plays on TV, the thin line between fantasy and reality wiggles wildly out of control.
At the end of a very long, strange, cosplay-filled day, will the trio find the connections they’re each craving?
Director Sanja Simić
Set & Costume Designer Anthony Spinaze
Lighting Designer Ben Hughes
Sound Designer & Composer Wil Hughes
Fight & Intimacy Nigel Poulton
Object Realiser M’ck McKeague
Fish Choreographer Sammie Williams
Stage Manager Nicole Neil
Rehearsal Stage Manager Jacinta Way
Photography Morgan Roberts
CAST
Will Bartolo, Rachel Nutchey, Byron Lankester-Howells
Commissioned and presented by La Boite Theatre Company, 2023.
REVIEWS
Sanja Simić directed this exuberance, keeping energies alive and actors in character. She and her team are to be congratulated for a magnificent effort.
- Westender
Collaborating closely, Treston and Simić have crafted a playful yet meaningful journey, exploring themes of romantic yearning, queerness, and the ways we present ourselves to the world.
- Stage Whispers
In less adept hands, IRL may have turned into an uncontrollable whirlwind, but clever and incisive directing from Sanja Simić means this frenzy of a production is both very serious and very funny.
— Yen-Rong Wong (yenrongwong.com)