Boys Will Be Boys

by Melissa Bubnic
A Bush Theatre and Headlong production
At the iconic Bush Hall

★★★★
“With filthy jokes and heartbreaking songs, selling your soul never looked so stylish.”
Time Out

Some say the City is still a man’s world. In Boys Will Be Boys the players are all women.

Astrid Wentworth is ruthless. If there is a special hell for women who don’t help each other, Astrid’s got the top table reserved and a martini waiting.

But, when the young and ambitious Priya applies for a junior position on the trading floor, Astrid recognises something in her and decides to give her a go. After all, what’s gender got to do with it?

“What do you say? When someone tells you you’ve sold your soul?”

“I say it’s mine to sell. And the devil knows how to dance.”


The Bush Theatre and Headlong take over the iconic Bush Hall for an exhilarating night out featuring cabaret music and performed by an all-female cast.


Boys Will Be Boys is supported by the MA Dramatic Writing at Drama Centre London at Central Saint Martins

 

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"A brilliantly raucous satire of banking life."
Time Out
"Astringent and furiously funny."
The Times
"Bushell is terrific as Astrid: acerbic, funny."
Financial Times
"Gorgeously atmospheric."
Time Out
"Rude and raucous banking satire."
The Guardian

Photo & video

Director
Sound Designer
Composer
Pianist
Designer
Casting
Writer
Fight Director
Movement Director

Cast

Chipo Chung
Chipo plays Isabelle in Boys Will Be Boys. Her theatre credits include The Haunting of Hill House (Liverpool Playhouse), The Maids (Harare International Festival of the Arts), Fu Manchu (Oval Theatre), Phedre (National Theatre), Turandot (Hampstead Theatre), Fallujah (Old Truman Brewery), The Overwhelming (National Theatre), Talking To Terrorists (Out of Joint/Oxford Playhouse), The Lunatic Queen (Riverside Studios), Tall Phoenix (Belgrade Theatre),  Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Liverpool Playhouse), The Mayor Of Zalamea (Liverpool Everyman Theatre), and Hamlet (Southampton Nuffield Theatre). Her television credits include Thirteen, From Darkness, AD: The Bible Continues, Fortitude, The Politician's Husband, Sherlock, Camelot, Identity, Casualty, Doctor Who, Last Enemy, Holby City, Dr Who, Dalziel and Pascoe, Absolute Power. Chipo’s film credits include The White Room, 360, In The Loop, Sunshine and Proof.
Emily Barber
Emily plays Harrison in Boys Will Be Boys.Theatre credits include Cymbeline (The Globe), The Importance of Being Earnest (Vaudeville Theatre), Billy Liar (Manchester Royal Exchange), Twelfth Night and When We Are Married (RWCMD), and Cornelius (Finborough Theatre and Broadway). Film credits include Burger (Sundance Festival Winner).
Helen Schlesinger
Helen plays Arthur. Previously for the Bush Theatre she has appeared in Whipping It Up. Other theatre include Frozen (Park Theatre), Single Spies (Rose Theatre), Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse), Bracken Moor (Tricycle), Fireface (Young Vic), Skåne, The God’s Weep, Comfort Me With Apples  (Hampstead), Blue/Orange (Arcola), The Stone, Wild East, Bear Hug, The Weather (Royal Court), The Crucible (RSC/Gielgud), Uncle Vanya, A Moon for the Misbegotten, King Lear, The Illusion, The Road to Mecca (Manchester Royal Exchange), The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night (RSC), The Oresteia, War and Peace, Inadmissible Evidence (NT), An Inspector Calls (NT/Garrick), The Mill on the Floss (Shared Experience), Becket (Theatre Royal Haymarket), The Winter’s Tale, The Second Mrs Tanqueray (Salisbury Playhouse), Wild Oats (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Design for Living (Harrogate), Hamlet, The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest (Compass). Film credits include Dirty War, 24 Hour Party People, Persuasion. Television credit includes Midsomer Murders, Lewis, Eastenders, The Hour, Merlin, Nativity, Criminal Justice, Trial and Retribution, Waking the Dead, Sensitive Skin, The Playground, Rose and Maloney, The Way We Live Now, Bad Girls, The Greatest Store in the World, Devil’s Advocate, Between the Lines, The Cormorant, Bad Girls.
Ellora Torchia
Ellora plays Priya Sengupta in Boys Will Be Boys. Her previous theatre credits include Out of Joint’s production of Macbeth, directed by Max Stafford-Clark and played ‘Ellida’ in The Lady From the Sea at RADA. For film she has appeared in Les Cowboys (Pathe). Ellora’s television credits include Beowulf (ITV), Indian Summers (New Pictures/Channel 4), DCI Banks (ITV), The Suspicions Of Mr Whicher –Beyond The Pale (ITV), and Spooks (BBC).
Kirsty Bushell
Kirsty returns to the Bush to play Astrid in Boys Will Be Boys – she previously appeared in Disgraced and 2000 Feet Away. She previously worked for Headlong playing Harper in Angels in America. Her other theatre work includes Hedda Gabler (Salisbury Playhouse), Antigone (Barbican/International Tour), The White Devil, Twelfth Night, Comedy of Errors and The Tempest (RSC), Edward II, 13, Edgar and Annabel, There is a War, Danton’s Death, The Voysey Inheritance, Two Gentlemen of Verona (National Theatre), The Big Meal (Theatre Royal Bath), Know How I Feel About Eve (Hampstead Theatre), Belongings (West End/Hampstead Theatre), 1000 Stars Explode in the Sky, Don Juan (Lyric Hammersmith), Pornography (Tricycle), Serious Money (Birmingham Rep), Angels in America (Headlong), Plenty, Far Away, Fen, A Girl in the Goldfish Bowl (Sheffield Theatres), Blue Heart, Testing the Echo (Out of Joint), The Seagull (Northampton Theatres), An Inspector Calls (West End). For television, her work includes SilkFrankie, Silent Witness, True Love, Roger Roger (BBC), Injustice, FM (ITV), Pornography (Channel 4), Pulling (Siver River/BBC), Law and Order (Kudos) Midsomer Murders (Bentley Productions), Talk to Me (Company Pictures, Family Man (BBC), Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee (Hat Trick). Film work includes Women and Children and Really (Night for Day Films).

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