My Brother My Brother My BrotherReview by Richard Wolstencroft

Kulture

My Brother My Brother My Brother
Review by Richard Wolstencroft

The question of masculinity in the age of woke is a sore point for our culture. So, playwright Michael Gray Griffith in typical confrontational style has decided to press on that tooth in his excellent new play My Brother My Brother My Brother playing at the Alex Theatre until Saturday September 21st.

Michael Gray Griffith for those who don't know is a local playwright with over a dozen plays under his belt. He works with The Wolves Theatre Company. I was fortunate enough to see his last play Marooned, an excellent play set in the Bardo space between Life and Death.

Michael since 2021 has been a big part of what is called the “freedom movement”. When venues required vaccine passports to enter venues, Michael took umbrage with this segregation agenda and founded Cafe Locked Out. Series of daily videos soon followed on the Covid crisis and the way society was forcing the Vaccine on to people and turning those who refused in to outcasts and related issues. I was fortunate myself to join Michael’s Cafe Locked Out posse with the No Goat Show - a No Censorship Show Michael and I founded, airing usually on Sunday nights, with other regulars like David Thrussell, Robyn Jackson Stegnar and Damien Richardson.

Michael is an explosive creative talent, bubbling with ideas constantly, often calling me up with ideas he has for plays.

Not that long ago he mentioned he was working on My Brother My Brother My Brother. Under four months I’d say, and four months later here it is being performed at Alex Vass’ wonderful Alex Theatre.

Some spoilers to follow:

My Brother My Brother My Brother is a simple premise. Three young guys in their early 20’s stuck on a boat off the coast of Australia, but with no land in sight and very few provisions. But there’s a catch. One of the young men’s Grandfather appears to have stranded them there on purpose and for a reason. Grandpop’s vanished, maybe topped himself, maybe not. But he’s left the boys a test: be men and survive, be boys and perish. Old school Granddad Right?
Michael Gray Griffith is interested in ideas of ‘rights of passage’, events young men are at times forced to go through that bring out the men in them.

This idea is, of course these days, deeply offensive to the woke cultural revolution of today. Who see masculinity and young men in general as a threat to wokeness, diversity and inclusion and all that bullshit. Young men today constantly have to apologise for things they did not do constantly or crimes they did not commit and be publicly shamed like they are living in Maoist China in the late 60’s and early 70’s. We often hear the talk of a toxic masculinity and culture from the woke mob. But, the only toxic culture I see is the woke Neo Maoist Cultural Revolution we are currently suffering through.

Michael Gray Griffith wants to confront these issues and more. He has assembled a fine young cast to discuss these confronting topics in this 100 minute play with a ten minute interval.

My Brother My Brother My Brother is an excellent new Samuel Beckett inspired meditation on masculinity. It’s an enthralling theatrical experience that handles its subjects well, without being overly preachy. Themes in the anti Vax community are touched on, that makes this almost one of the first works of art to come out to directly address the themes of bodily autonomy, personal liberty and freedom raised by the Covid totalitarian exercise.
Say what you like about that period, in retrospect it all seems to have been a crazy and unnecessary descent in to unheard of social control and manipulation. Michael tackles all this head on in this dramatic new play.

Tom Darcy, Odysseus and Joshua Bruce are the three young male leads. All do an excellent job. Joshua Bruce impressed the person I saw the play with and I think Odysseus did a great job as the most Alpha Male of the group. Tom Darcy also does a wondeful job as the young man with the pesky old school Grandfather.

A play targeted at uplifting young men and giving their lives a sense of meaning would have been strongly embraced by previous generations of theatre goers and theatre culture. But after the woke cultural revolution the themes of this play are almost verboten, forbidden!

If we lived in a just world this three hander starring a great cast of three young men would be on at the MTC or The Malthouse for a two month run. But the Alex Theatre has stepped in to save the day, it’s playing for the next week, followed by some regional engagements.

I can’t recommend this play enough. It tops even his former play Marooned, that I thought was very impressive also. So get along to this topical, confronting and timely new theatrical experience, and embrace the beginning of new non woke cultural revolution in the arts, popping up all over the place now. Young men have value. This is a play to take your sons to!

Michael Gray Griffith is to be commended for this brave theatrical entry and experience and I for one can’t wait to see what he does next!

Richard Wolstencroft
September 2024