Boys' Life

by Howard Korder

Two gripping plays by one of America's most exciting playwrights Boy's Life: love, relationships, and growing up in New York City "a substantial play. It makes Howard Korder a presence to take seriously in the theater" (Village Voice); Search and Destroy: corporate politics, lies and relationships "You know the worst thing a man can do, Mr Carling? He can undertake an adventure. He can misjudge his strength and he can destroy himself." The Daily Telegraph described it as "one of those all-too-rare plays where you desperately want to know what is going to happen next." Search and Destroy received its British premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in May 1993.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Corydon Melgoza · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
This play reveals how the values we tend to associate with masculinity and manhood are really that of children. The womanizing, selfishness, manipulation, domination—all tactics of avoiding responsibility and growing up. The characters weren’t anything special, you’ve seen these archetypes in many contemporary plays and often done much better. I wish we saw the core of why these mentalities are so effective and seem to repeat themselves throughout history regardless of social structure. The play never goes that far. However, each male character does represent a different type of toxic guy and that aspect works thematically. There was one hilarious scene, but the rest of the play could have benefitted from more original-feeling dialogue and scene development. Overall I wasn’t blown away or moved to tears. It did a decent enough job exploring what it set out to explore, but I will likely forget it in a month.

[Briana B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this for a monologue, and it was very confusing and off-putting with its content. Maybe I'm missing a part of it, but it felt like nothing was conclusive and left me wondering what I was supposed to get out of it. Phil's monologue is quite nice, however, which made the rest of the play even harder to read!

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boys' Life, by Howard Korder, was written 35 years ago and tells the story of three young men struggling against their arrested development and thwarted life expectations. Jack is married with a young child, but still stays out late with his old high school/college buddies and tries to pick up women in the park; his extreme disappointment with his life is masked (or mirrored) by his acerbic humor and his ever-shortening fuse of a temper. Don, trying to be serious in his profession, is nonetheless mired in a world of meaningless one-night stands; Jack, noting at one point that Don always seems to be in his underwear, asks whether he owns any pants. Phil is a less defined character, but he likewise is stuck in a rut of self-destructive sex and drinking that he seems to want to get out of--how badly he wants out, though, is not quite clear. The play is a series of vignettes, taken from a year or so in these boys' lives, as we watch them interact with each other and with various women they are involved with. It's often darkly comic, and unexpectedly revealing in its exploration of these overgrown adolescents.

[M Caesar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was it the /worst/ thing i've ever read? probably not. But I did regret checking this out from the library right around scene 2. low point was definitely when sexually assaulting a woman was presented as a fun vignette in what men do for fun. Hard to think of a single redeeming factor, other than it being a relatively short read.

[Cori Diaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

had some moments but overall pretty wackensack

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not quite sure why this play about slackers is called a comedy. Similar to its fellow 1988 Pulitzer nominee, Talk Radio, Boys’ Life is thin on plot and thick on the celebration of narcissistic assholes and the modern man-child.

With its series of brief sketches that bear a strong resemblance to modern webisodes and over-the-top gender roles of loser men and the pulled-together women who put up with them, Boys’ Life feels more timely today than when it originally premiered. Or perhaps things haven’t changed that much after all. Quasi-recommended.

[Erin Carlton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful play!! Clever and funny.. I'd love to see this performed by some remarkable actors.. It would be genius

[Carmen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good play, partially trying to explain and partially trying to pardon guys being jerks. A good play that I wanted to hate, but still loved!

[Angela Jones-Cuéllar · Rating 1 out of 5]

pooled ink Reviews:

Nothing special.

[Reşit Enhoş · Rating 4 out of 5]

entertaining and well formed

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

its cool