Many will find this new play an uncomfortable watch. Even for those, like myself, who have had no experience in single-sex schooling or Catholic/Jesuit education, All Boys is a play that can make you wince.

Written by lawyer-turned-playwright Xavier Hazard (its first iteration was at NIDA, where Hazard studied), All Boys turns the clock back a decade or so to depict the experiences of boys attending an elite Catholic boys’ school. For all, it’s a life-defining period. It’s here that friendships and connections are made, where behaviours and temperaments are forged. This is where boys become men and from which leading figures in business, government and the law emerge.

But what kind of men are these? The school would have it that they are the best among us. In Hazard’s view, however, they are most likely to be traumatised – victims who will in turn become apologists at best, perpetrators at worst.

All Boys. Photo © Nicholas Warrand

All Boys unfolds over a number of years, beginning with a new intake of boys. Their journey unfolds in a series of short scenes. Some are tender, full of adolescent yearning, some are comic....