Boy Parts: The Stage Adaptation

by Gillian Greer (Adaptation), Eliza Clark (Story)

“I wonder what I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat. Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a mark?”

Irina takes erotic photos of average looking men. Always behind the lens, she watches, she moulds, and she stalks. These boys are putty in her hands, just the way she likes it.

When the opportunity to show her photographs in a fashionable London gallery coincides with a new boy to obsess over, cracks begin to appear. How far can she push her new prey for the perfect shot, or has she already gone too far?

Based on the critically acclaimed debut novel by Eliza Clark (Finalist in Women’s Prize for Fiction) and adapted by Gillian Greer (Meat, Theatre503; Petals, Theatre Upstairs), Boy Parts is a pitch-black psychological thriller that subverts the erotic gaze and asks what happens when our need for connection gets twisted.

This stage adaptation for one actor by Gillian Greer was premiered in 2023 at Soho Theatre, London, in a co-production between Metal Rabbit Productions and Soho Theatre, and directed by Sara Joyce.

Genres: Plays

96 pages, Paperback

Published September 26, 2023

Reviews

[pippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

one thing about me is that i will pick up a play from the shelf in waterstones to have a look at the first couple of pages and the creative team out of curiosity and then accidentally read the whole play

i just missed out on getting to see this in the theatre, and im sure it would have been fantastic, but functionally as a playtext it is like wow what if boy parts was forty pages long and therefore basically just what if you read boy parts but it was worse

[eden · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boy parts was a good novel, however this adaptation isn’t. Compressing the original material (which is crazy itself, because you gave up on all the nuance of the story) was already bad but this being a one person show I think made it even worse.

[Nikitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

#womeninmalefields

[Sophie]

watched this in november last year in soho theatre and i have to say the script can’t convey aimee kelly’s performance in house

[Amy Darton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this concept and think it’s really impactful. UP THE NORTH MAN

[Loretta · Rating 3 out of 5]

condensing boy parts into 40 odd pages really diminishes the catastrophic yet utterly fascinating and nuanced descent into madness that irina and reader go through together, and replaces it instead with something much more linear yet far less subtle. the writing is fab, but overall just doesn’t compare to the novel.

[Tessa {bleeds glitter} · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really liked the novel and so I kind of stumbled into reading this when my audiobook provider was like "maybe you'd like this". They were wrong. As the other reviews have said, this missed out on so much nuance of the novel and basically only adapted the absolutely infuriating and annoying parts. Maybe it's a great production but I'd urge anyone to actually pick up the novel (well, not actually anyone, it's definitely not for everyone).

[Sophia Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy Parts is one of my favourite books and I looooooved the show (I saw it about a couple of years ago? Only just got around to reading through the script lol)

I really enjoyed some of the additions and Flo’s character is much better in the adaption as well as Irina’s mania is shining through well.

I just felt it rushed. Compressed. Some of its darker themes squashed.

Really good regardless and big love to Gillian Greer for doing this

[Finchley Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don’t think this story was meant to be a play.

It made me excited to read the book because I liked the prose and I liked the concepts but I just hate the fact it’s a one woman show. Why aren’t we really trying to analyze this perversion in a way that makes us in on it?

Distinctly remember ranting to anyone who’d listen to me about how disappointing I found the play, hoping the book will scratch that itch for me.

By no means bad, just not the adaptation this story needed, call me up when it’s a movie!

[Rebekah Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5.

[Jess F · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I would feel differently had I seen this performed, but this missed out some of the most important meat of the novel?? Feels half baked

[WJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Julia Armfield said that was good and boyyyyy
That was a m a z i n g

[♡ · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading boy parts I was really confused at how a one person show of this would work so I decided to read the play… I’m even more confused now

[Aarav · Rating 4 out of 5]

read while drifting through the kerala backwaters, exactly how it should be read! can't wait to read the og novel now

[rocky · Rating 4 out of 5]

4⭐— a shame i didn't get to see this live😔