Men

Brendan Cowell’s first play Men was performed at the Old Fitz Theatre in 2000, and they’ve brought it back to the Theatre this year. The passing years have meant that Cowell’s command of language has grown tighter – awkward phrasing or overwritten moments are jarring here, only because Belvoir’s current production of Cowell’s The Dog, and the film adaptation of Ruben Guthrie are so precise in their writing. 

Men follows three men, Guy (Jamie Timony), Jules (Sean Hawkins), and Crazy Bob (Ben O’Toole), in preparation for their new lives. It’s their final hour before they go “out there”, and each is on the edge of something: self-destruction, acceptance, fear. Timony’s role is the most sympathetic and cleverly played, and potentially the least caricatured version of masculinity: he is the sensitive artist type, drug-addled, quietly enduring Bob’s demanding sexuality and Guy’s delusional alpha male. 

There’s something raw and almost shocking about what Cowell seems to be trying to do here, and in the way it’s brought to life by the skilled hands of Designer Tess Dorman and Lighting Designer Alex Berlage, whose use of set and lighting add to the sense of being on the cusp – of new life, or of the end.

The final reveal is, in a word, hilarious, but unlikely to stand the test of time – the cultural reference is one this audience understood, but an audience five years from now may not. But it’s just the twist in a play of rising tension and nuance, whose depiction of contemporary masculinities remains incisive.