Devon Rose Theatre: Boy Parts

Devon Rose Theatre.

By arrangement with Nick Hern Books.

‘I wonder what I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat. Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a mark?'

Irina takes erotic photos of average-looking men. Always behind the lens, she watches, she moulds, and she stalks. These boys are putty in her hands, just the way she likes it.

Adapted by Gillian Greer from the critically acclaimed debut novel by Eliza Clark, which was a finalist for the Women's Prize Futures Award, Boy Parts is a pitch-black psychological thriller that subverts the erotic gaze and asks what happens when our need for connection gets twisted. This one woman play will have you laugh, cry and ultimately shocked.

Review by Mark Ashmore 28/06/2024

An important part of any Fringe Festival is the new work appearing for the very first time, while this may be Devon Rose Theatre’s debut performance as a company, they clearly have a deep love and admiration for theatrical work, and the quality of their performance shines through even the darkest aspects of the play they have created for us.

Gillian Greer’s adaptation of the novel by Eliza Clark, doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to portraying Irina, a photographer completely lacking in both shame and empathy in equal measure, and we watch as she lures young men from her local Tesco into her web and gets them to pose for erotic photos, these, deliberately average looking, men soon find themselves to be victims of Irina’s manipulation and much worse.

Throughout the performance, Charlotte Cowley exposes the multiple layers of Irina, usually characters decend into sordid depravity, but Irina’s journey seem to begin there, which makes the audience wonder from the beginning, just how far into Irina’s self obsessions we’ll be plunged. The dialogue in this show comes quick and Charlotte conveys a wit that’s sharpness is only outmatched by her own tongue, Irina’s ascerbic sense of humour is a constant guilty pleasure throughout the show.

This is a powerful piece of new work, charged with the complexities of misplaced sexual desire and Irina revels in her ability to twist and toy with the conventional power dynamics we would expect to see in tale of sexual awakenings.

Not for the faint of heart, but don’t miss out on this journey to the dark side.