For me, the contrast to Grace is striking. Whereas that other was neatly, smoothly constructed literally to a fault, and sorely lacking in anything that might have made it real, Poor Boy is uneven - 'lumpy' was the first description that came to mind - and flawed in many ways, but nonetheless I enjoyed it far more, for it has a spirit, a dash, a vision maybe (I don't think it's unfair to compare the two in terms of vision despite the comparatively cerebral nature of Grace, for if you don't have that, whatever form it may take or focus it may have, you ain't got much) which the other lacks. For all of its failings, Poor Boy touches upon something, both in moments and as a whole.
Much of the lumpiness comes from the lack of connection between the music and the action of the play; the songs were written by Tim Finn - some, at least, were old ones (possibly all of them were) - and they're well sung by the cast, Guy Pearce far from the least amongst them, but not meaningfully integrated with the story in any real way. That said, the story would have been quite thin without the musical interludes to break it up, which is another (and of course related) weakness.
But for all of that, as I said before, I responded very favourably to this one. The staging has a shadowy, nocturnal feel which goes well with the play's underlying conceit - the mysterious supernatural return - and there's a kind of creative energy to it for which I'll forgive a lot. Well worthwhile.
Thumbs up to the new venue, by the way - from the inside, at any rate (I'm not entirely sold on the exterior, but it may grow on me).
(The MTC group for this year, incidentally, comprises, including both full and part subscriptions, Steph, Sunny, Ben, Wilfred, Dakshinee, Christine L, Bec P and Gia - and there've been a couple of MS types, D and R, also present at these first couple.)
