Clontarf Author Michael Harnett's "The Boys" @ The Smock Alley

Local author and playwright, Michael Harnett’s next production, “THE BOYS”, will open in Smock Alley Theatre on the 16th November for a two week run.

This new play is an adaption of his acclaimed novel of the same name and features the lives and exploits of a group of sixteen-year old boys growing up during the sixties in Drumcondra.

Though different in many ways, the boys are very much the same when it comes to their single preoccupation in life, sex. They are besotted with it. Most of their daylight hours are spent thinking of it. Some can handle it well, but others are riddled with guilt, believing that this "un-natural preoccupation", can only result in damnation. 

But the overriding theme of the play is about growing up. It’s the story of how they mature, how they handle the various strains that will be heaped upon them, during what will become, their last summer together.

It’s a play of the time, when people had very little materially. It deals with not alone the lives of the boys but also their parents, how some cope with the inevitable scourge of emigration, how others are forced to come to terms with the ultimate parting in life, death.

But above all, “THE BOYS”, is a coming of age story of four teenage boys and how they manage to steer themselves through their last six months together, from the haunting darkness of the month of the Holy Souls in November, to the following summer when harsh decisions will have to be made.

The cast of four will not alone play themselves, but in character changes that turn in a flash, they will play over thirty other parts.

“THE BOYS is both hilarious and poignant, an amazing evening of enthralling entertainment.”

Tickets for "THE BOYS" are available at smockalley.com