IRL
by Lewis Treston
La Boite Theatre, 2023
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
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)