“POSH ticked all the boxes … – solid play, excellent cast, well staged and directed.”
Julia Newbould
4 Eton messes
Venue: Old Fitz
Sydney
Dates : Until May 22
Badly behaved men
A play about white male privilege is not new, nor it is a comfortable topic for these times. However, POSH is a play worth seeing.
Written in 2010 by English playwright Laura Wade, the play centres around a fictional Oxford University club (the Riot Club) based on the real life Bullingdon Club, a club of uber privilege, where several UK PMs, including David Cameron and Boris Johnson were members, as well as two former kings Edward VII and the Edward VIII.
This is not the first time the Bullingdon Club has been fictionalised. Evelyn Waugh thinly disguised it as the Bollinger Club in Decline and Fall (1928). Over the years the Bullingdon Club members, after consuming excess alcohol, have vandalised various venues where their dinners were held, assuming that since they could pay for the repairs there was no damage done – just more evidence of their privilege and entitlement.
Wade has transformed the Bullingdon Club into the Riot Club – bullying and riotous – so apt.
The play opens with Jeremy (Charles Mayer), a high-ranking Tory and godfather to Guy Bellingfield (Roman Delo), an Oxford student and member of the Riot Club. Keen to ingratiate himself with the other members and set himself up for a future presidency Guy is asking for ideas that will make his contribution to the dinner memorable and worthy. Jeremy doesn’t want scandal and suggests modest contributions such as a menu to remember which Guy decides to implement.
An opulently set dining table dominates the stage for the 10 privileged, arrogant, toxic male members attending Riot Club’s dinner in a country gastropub. Club members start arriving waiting for the club president James Leighton-Masters (Ryan Hodson) to arrive before club rules permit them to drink or take a seat. Each of the attendees is excited for the dinner – they have had a couple of seasons in retreat after one of their members, Toby Maitland (Dylan O’Connor) revealed the club had reformed after it’s 80s heyday and that he was a member. For his indiscretion, he was hazed by the others – forced to wear a white pompadour wig and later made to drink from each member’s wine glass which they had added salt, saliva and even urine.
First to arrive is George Balfour (Tristan Black) a gormless, upper-class twat, followed by Toby Maitland and Ed Montgomery (Toby Blome), the new recruit Harry is mentoring, and what the English would refer to as a chinless wonder. Ed has already had his room trashed as part of the initiation. They are soon joined by Harry Villiers (AJ Evans) a foul-mouthed, badly behaved boor, replete in his fencing togs which confirms his look of privilege.
Soon after, cynical and camp Hugo Fraser-Tyrwhitt (Jack Richardson) and his young crush Miles Richards (Max Cattana) arrive. Chisel-jawed Miles considers himself different from the others – he’s in a band and has been to Brixton! Dmitri Mitropolous (Anthony Yongoyan) arrives and declares he has taken care of the “after-party”. In doing so he declares himself competition for the club presidency which throws Guy and sets up a rivalry between them. Dmitri is of Greek heritage and this comes up regularly when the others are having a dig. Alistair Ryle (Christian Paul Byers) sweeps in with his scarf, full of opinion and influence, one of which is hating poor people although in other ways he seems a little smarter than the others. Finally, James arrives and the dinner begins. James is straddling privilege and real world – he is late because he had a job interview – signaling that times have changed.
As the room fills with testosterone and the alcohol starts lubricating the men, the conversation turns to minor ribbing of each other – there is racism, sexism and the class divide starts to grow. They criticise the food, the venue, the pub owner. They are itching for a fight.
Other characters appear contrasting the upper class – Chris, the proud owner of the pub, played by Mike Booth; his daughter Rachel (Dominique Purdue), a savvy university graduate helping out in her dad’s pub; and Charlie (Scarlett Waters) an escort hired by the boorish Harry for the group’s entertainment.
The play is confronting as it puts on display the worst behaviour we expect of a certain type of upper-class entitlement. Perhaps there are times where it is over-done by its relentlessness – such as Toby’s punishment.
While POSH is quintessentially English, the overtones of privileged rich white males resonates with many audiences, particularly in today’s world leadership. And mob rule – albeit a wealthy mob – is in force. The obnoxiousness and expectation that their money can excuse everything, is very confronting. There were some very uncomfortable audience members who elected not to return after intermission.
The dinner crescendos into a moment that we see building – and its repercussions are where the mettle of the club is truly tested.
Wade has captured the authentic voice of her characters and given director Margaret Thanos a solid script to work on. Thanos has electrified the ensemble cast into faultless, high-energy performances. There are no weak links but, for me, there were standouts – namely Guy, Hugo and Alistair.
Congratulations also to set designer Soham Apte, who has delivered a perfect set and costume designer Aloma Barnes who was meticulous in delivering the perfect club “uniforms”.
POSH ticked all the boxes for me – solid play, excellent cast, well staged and directed.
Photography by Robert Catto
Four Eton Messes
Julia Newbould, Theatre Now
