Girls & Boys

Nikki Shiels stars in Dennis Kelly's Girls & Boys at Melbourne Theatre Company

After stunning audiences in London and New York, Girls & Boys makes its Melbourne premiere starring Nikki Shiels (The Picture of Dorian Gray), opening on Thursday 27 October at Arts Centre Melbourne.

A devastatingly astute and timely new work from Tony Award-winning British playwright Dennis Kelly (Matilda: The Musical) and directed by Helpmann Award-winner Kate Champion (Never Did Me Any Harm), Girls & Boys is an extraordinary one-woman show that will stay with you long after the curtains close.

With an unforgettable performance by Nikki Shiels, this powerful production promises to have you in fits of laughter before hitting home with an impact that will leave you reeling.

Director Kate Champion said, ‘Witnessing Nikki Shiels, an actress in such command because of her exceptional skills, diving deep into Dennis Kelly's funny, yet devastating play Girls & Boys is a director's dream.’

About the play: A smart, witty woman. A funny, passionate man. They meet, fall in love, get married, start a family. So far, so unremarkable. Their life together accumulates its regular successes and disappointments, its many universal touchpoints, until it takes an unexpected turn all too shocking, and all too common.

Dennis Kelly is a British writer for theatre, television and film. Work for theatre includes Debris, Osama the Hero, After the End, Love and Money, Taking Care of Baby, DNA, Orphans, The Gods Weep, The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas, Girls & Boys and The Regression. For television, he has written and created Utopia, Pulling (co-written, co-created), The Third Day (co-created) and Together, and for film he wrote the screenplay for Black Sea. He also wrote the book for the Olivier and Tony Award-winning Matilda: The Musical and in 2010 DNA became a set text on the GCSE English Literature syllabus.

Kate Champion was the founding Artistic Director and CEO of Force Majeure (2002-15), and has worked for over 30 years in theatre, dance, circus, opera and musical theatre with productions including Never Did Me Any Harm (Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company), Under the Influence, Every Brilliant Thing, My Brilliant Career (Belvoir), That Eye The Sky, A View From the Bridge (STCSA); The Rise and Fall of Saint George (Performing Lines); La Strada (English National Opera); Bliss, The Ring Cycle (Opera Australia), Evie May (The Hayes); Fully Committed, Honour (Ensemble); Meat Eaters, Perfect Stranger (NIDA); Please Hold (NICA) and Swallow (National Theatre of Parramatta). Kate created and performed two critically acclaimed solo shows, Face Value and About Face and has been awarded Helpmann, Green Room and Australian Dance Awards. Kate is the newly appointed Artistic Director of Black Swan State Theatre Company of Western Australia.

Nikki Shiels has previously worked with Melbourne Theatre Company on Home, I’m Darling, The Cherry Orchard, True Minds, Top Girls and Don Parties On. Other theatre credits include The Picture of Dorian Gray, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, A Cheery Soul and Three Sisters (Sydney Theatre Company); My Brilliant Career, They Divided The Sky, The Sugar House, The Rover and Twelfth Night (Belvoir); Picnic at Hanging Rock, Night on Bald Mountain, The Dragon and Elizabeth – Almost by Chance A Woman (Malthouse Theatre); The Last Wife (Ensemble); The Unspoken Word is ‘Joe’ (Griffin/La Mama); The Dream (Bell Shakespeare); Joan (The Rabble); M + M and The Dollhouse (Daniel Schlusser Ensemble); Madeleine (Black Sequin Productions/Arts House). Screen credits include Safety Net, Bloom, House Husbands, Childhood’s End, Rush IV and The Eye of the Storm. Nikki won the 2020 Green Room Award for Most Outstanding Performer for her performance as Judy Martin in Home, I’m Darling for Melbourne Theatre Company.

Cast Nikki Shiels

Director Kate Champion

Original Set & Costume Designer Marg Horwell

Lighting Designer Amelia Lever-Davidson

Composer & Sound Designer Sidney Millar

Voice & Dialect Coach Geraldine Cook-Dafner

Associate Set Designer & Video Designer Romanie Harper

Associate Costume Designer Sophie Woodward 

Assistant Director Stephen Phillips