About the work
"Girls & Boys" is a full-length monologue for a solo actress by British playwright Dennis Kelly. Lyndsey Turner directed the world premiere on 14 February 2018 at the Royal Court Theatre in London, with Carey Mulligan in the only role. Kelly had previously written the television series "Utopia" and the book for the musical "Matilda".
Plot
An unnamed woman looks back on her relationship: she meets her future husband in an airport queue, they marry and have two children, while her career as a documentary filmmaker takes off and his own business fails. The husband's growing resentment builds into an increasingly threatening dynamic that the narrator herself only grasps in full retrospect. In the end, the husband commits a fatal act of violence against their children and does not survive it himself.
Cultural significance
The play is widely read as an examination of toxic masculinity and control within a marriage and was noted for combining everyday comedy with mounting dread and for its unexpected shift in narrative perspective. John Birke's German translation, published by Rowohlt Theaterverlag, already had its German-language premiere on 10 March 2018 at the Berliner Ensemble, directed by Lily Sykes with Stephanie Eidt in the lead, only weeks after the London premiere.