A tender, playful and profoundly moving dance and theatre piece for eight-year-olds and older that reimagines masculinity with rare honesty, courage and hope.
Rating
Unmissable!
The Show For Young Men by Guesthouse Projects is an exceptional piece of dance theatre for children aged 8+, presented as part of the Southbank Centre’s Imagine children’s festival. Funny and quietly radical, this mostly wordless duet between a male adult (Robbie Synge) and an 11-year-old boy (Alfie) offers an intimate, deeply moving exploration of modern masculinity, care and male friendship.
The action takes place on a building site: both wear matching blue full-body overalls with zips – Robbie there to work, Alfie there, it seems, to play and be mischievous. Their relationship unfolds through risk-taking and gorgeous choreography, dynamically reflecting their unpacking of each other’s perspectives on the world and their place within it as men. Often it is the child who teaches the adult to loosen up, reversing traditional roles. They construct and deconstruct their industrial landscape, hiding behind sliding steel walls, shuffling through giant rolling tubes, perching on ladders. While Synge tidies, Alfie gleefully scatters. Through shared games and testing boundaries, they explore who leads, who learns, who holds power. What begins in play gradually moves toward something more nurturing: a non-toxic male bond built on compassion and vulnerability. This dynamic is instantly readable to children.
The sound design (Greg Sinclair) is exceptional. Snatches of Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ underscore the drudgery of adult routine; birdsong transports us to nostalgic childhood freedom; a hint of Oasis evokes male teenage angst. A radio murmurs football commentary and debates between Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer – a backdrop of traditional male discourse and the latest transfer gossip, against which something softer is quietly unfolding.
There are moments of exquisite simplicity and warmth – a packet of biscuits shared, stillness held. Yet darkness also creeps in. Under frosted blue light, Synge dances alone – body heavy, steps dragging, depression and anxiety pressing in. Alfie watches: a crisis of identity and place hangs in the air. A highlight sees the adult, Synge, gently carrying the boy, stepping from foot to foot so Alfie never touches the ground. Trust made visible. In another haunting moment, Alfie sings – untrained, innocent, slightly discordant – into a mic quietly at the back of the stage, while Synge’s face is starkly lit by an industrial lamp, every line and trace of wear exposed.
When Bill Callahan’s ‘Riding for the Feeling’ fills the space, time seems to shift. As the boy continues to move and play, the man slips away, leaving the stage. The lyrics linger in the air – questions of identity, of who we are allowed to be. The mantle of manhood, with all its inherited weight, quietly passes from one generation to the next.
Directed by Eoin McKenzie and co-created with Synge and Alfie, the work plays with touch, power and holding; with the rules boys and men are taught to live by – and sometimes fall by – honestly exposed and explored. For children, it is funny, physical and clear. For adults, it opens something deeper, reflections on the men and boys in their own lives, on the boy you were, and the man you have become.
This is a must-see 50 minutes of bold, positive and beautifully crafted storytelling that offers real hope to anyone concerned by the encroaching rhetoric of what it means to be a man – rhetoric that so easily promotes toxic masculinity and negates the importance of men sharing how they feel with one another.
Scenographer: Rachel O’Neill
Sound Designer: Greg Sinclair
Lighting Designer: Katharine Williams
Movement Consultant: Aya Kobayashi
Lead Artist & Director: Eoin McKenzie
The Show for Young Men has completed its run at Southbank Centre. Check the company website for any future dates.
