WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2026
Girls And Boys
Katie Breen in 'Girls And Boys'. Production Photo: Amanda Doherty
I'm a fan of Dennis Kelly's work. I think his After The End is as multi-dimensional and startling as any psychological "in your face" play can be, and his book for Matilda: The Musical reads as a retention and an amplification of the spine-chilling unease and sporadically imaginative idealism which runs through the general excellence of Roald Dahl. Either can be seen an example of the escalation of external force and how any attempt to make it felt, and feared, is fiercely and memorably countered by bold females of any age who find their own form of power within. And it's certainly no different with his one-woman play Girls And Boys, brought to the stage upstairs at Belfast's MAC in a Untap Production directed by Michael Ievers earlier this year, for its Irish premiere.
Girls And Boys is another production I've mulled over for a while before reviewing, and I think that might be partly due to an overall effect that is as intimidating as it is electrifying, as heartbreaking as it is inspiring. Such is the level of vulnerability and fortitude on show from an astonishing Katie Breen, in a performance which, when tied in with Kelly's writing and Ievers' directing, takes one-person theatre to genuinely unforeseen heights - it's rather magnificent in its examination and expression of pure emotion.
Katie Breen in 'Girls And Boys'. Production Photo: Amanda Doherty
Breen, whose woman has no name, enters centre stage looking like someone who doesn't quite know what she wants to do or where she wants to go. Someone bound by chance. And that's pretty much how her character meets the man who will become her husband, in the queue to board a flight to Italy! It all takes off – I really couldn't help it, sorry – from there, a tale of travel, marriage, children and being a film producer, with the psychological battle of trying not to care versus the equally psychological fear of caring too much running through the play's entire character arc. This calls for one character to become many, with Breen needing to play out family scenarios, job interviews and more in front of us, and her strong impressionist skills meet every facet of the demanding, twist-laden narrative. Persistence and faith go unrewarded, aspiration turns to perspiration, and a seemingly promising union gets doused in unfaithfulness, on a life trail turned rollercoaster – a trail from confident, to anaemic, to disappointed, to paranoid, a chilling and captivating experience for the audience.
What Breen and the production team do so brilliantly here is command the mindset of the lonely and the purposeless, the fears of a worker, partner and parent so determined to craft anything resembling identity that the craft, and the graft in that craft, feel like all she has to fall back upon. We viewers are therefore made to ask how much we think for ourselves and just how much of our lives appear to rest in the hands of people we trust to guide and accompany us. It is an exhausting and punishing journey, not just for Breen's woman but also for everyone who may have related to and connected with her story at some point in their lives. Yet it is also a story elevated and sustained by perpetual belief in reward – a story where, for all the pitfalls and setbacks, the participants are still, deep down, driven by the positivity in dreams which emerged and remain from childhood. Perhaps we are, in a way, the girls and boys of Girls And Boys. Perhaps we are.
Simon Fallaha
Girls And Boys, an Untap Production, ran from Friday April 24 to Saturday April 25 in the Upstairs Theatre at The MAC, Belfast. More information on Untap can be found here.