“Why are men violent and cruel?” is a hot topic being discussed at The National Press Club, morning news shows and on social media. We often skirt around those adjectives, reflecting instead on algorithms, domestic violence and penalties for athletes caught flouting workplace policy (and maybe the law too).

In Savages, playwright Patricia Cornelius explores the role friendship plays in influencing men’s thoughts, feelings and most importantly actions. She doesn’t shy away from the violence and cruelty it often causes. How better to explore male friendship than through a boys trip on a cruise. 

Savages: Zoe Boesen, AYA, Nicci Wilks and Laila Thaker. Photo © Pia Johnson

Cornelius’ writing is beautiful. It’s almost spoken verse, the four characters delivering rhymes more often than prose. The former provides moments for the ensemble to speak as a chorus which is a rare treat. Director Kitan Petkovski controls the language with ease, ensuring natural and fast paced delivery that matches the pace of the script’s shifting styles. He pairs this with quick and seamless scene changes. 

The ensemble, AYA, Laila Thaker, Nicci Wilks and Zoe Boesen rise to the occasion of playing hurt and dangerous cis-men but Wilks is a standout. It’s unsurprising that she has a strong history of collaborating with Cornelius given the way she makes her character, Runt, come alive. Runt is pathetic and off-putting, like all the characters, but Wilks wrings out every drop of sympathy from the audience.

Savages. Photo © Pia Johnson

While the writing style of Savages shows why Cornelius is a lauded playwright, if the play were an essay it’d be lacking a thesis. The body of the argument is there, Cornelius shares multiple observations that ring true but she struggles to form a perspective. Savages repeats the same conversations we’ve been having for decades. You may leave the theatre thinking; and? So? It’s probably how my lecturers felt. Just one or two more paragraphs, just one missing link added and this essay would be an argument rather than a regurgitation of quotes. 

Petkovski grapples with this unsuccessfully. The start of the play, a tense dog fight that rolls into WASP-y Mums stripping down to blokey blokes as they walk onboard the cruise, doesn’t connect with anything we’re shown afterwards. The use of nudity, bar a stellar getting ready scene in a pokey cabin, seems to be trying to say something but it doesn’t hit home.

While Petkovski’s direction of the second half of the play saves it from feeling like a series of vignettes, he falls into the irksome trap of overusing sound design in emotional moments to push a reaction from the audience. I’m near begging for Directors to trust their actors and audiences. 

The creative team is talented enough that despite the production’s weaknesses it’s still an engaging watch that encourages reflection on the patriarchy and how it hurts everyone, no matter their gender.

Savages plays at Theatre Works, St Kilda, Melbourne until 12 September.