BGT to Put On New Play 'The Good Guy?'

The BGT English Theatre Company will put on its next show The Good Guy? by Ferelith Kingston at Abbaye de Neumünster (neimënster) in Luxembourg-Grund on Friday 4, Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 October 2024 at 19:30.

The play received the "Special Mention by the Jury" Prize at the Prix Laurent 2023. The Good Guy? delves into the effects of enforced gender norms on young people growing up in the digital age. Online extremism, particularly extreme misogyny, has become normalised and has led to the rise of a phenomenon called the “manosphere”. The manosphere is a varied collection of websites, blogs, and online forums which promote masculinity and misogyny and oppose feminism. Content from such sources and the rise in popularity of figures such as Andrew Tate and Jordan Peterson have become ubiquitous and led to the rise of dangerous online communities such as “incels”. Short for “involuntary celibates”, this term is used as a self-descriptor by members of an online subculture who deem themselves chronically unable to attract romantic or sexual partners, despite their alleged desire for such connections. Such groups (with a large online following) have often sparked violent misogyny and in some cases, even deadly crimes.

The Good Guy? explores the real-world consequences of this pervasive online rhetoric through two distinct voices: that of Dylan (Alessandro Stasi) and Katie (Natacha Stevenin), two 20-somethings whose stories are separate but mirror each other. Dylan’s loneliness leads him to seek community online by playing video games and he slowly gets pulled into a cult-like community instilling in him the belief that women are the root of all his problems. Meanwhile, Katie adopts “pop feminism”, believing that a positive, go-getting attitude and “girl power” will suffice. Feminism does not seem like a “big deal” to her until she finds out about the reality of extreme misogyny and the incel sub-culture.

Chronicle.lu recently had the opportunity to sit down with the play’s writer, Ferelith Kingston, the two lead actors, and the director and BGT co-founder Tony Kingston.

Speaking about her inspiration for the play, Ferelith Kingston mentioned that the book Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates profoundly shocked her and made her want to explore those feelings and facts in a play. It took a mix of research, tales and experiences she heard about, all based on reality, for the creation of this piece. Ferelith Kingston holds a BA in musical theatre and an MA in Theatre Practice at UCD and The Gaiety School of Acting. Having directed a variety of work across the UK, Ireland and Luxembourg and having taught drama herself at schools in Luxembourg and the UK, she is currently directing Cora Frank's new play Marriage With Benefits which will be premiered at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024. For The Good Guy?, Ferelith Kingston mentioned that the most important aspect for her was to show “real people” and to highlight the reality that we live in a time “where it’s very easy to become polarised”.

For the actors’ part, Natacha Stevenin emphasised that the script struck her from the beginning as a “really important topic to raise awareness on”, adding that having the two complementary points of view of Katie and Dylan adds something unique to the play. Alessandro Stasi also noted he enjoyed the mirrored writing style as particularly interesting. Their fragmented, parallel monologues advance the story without the characters meeting until the very last scene.

The play shows that ideas and online communities can have very serious, real-life consequences, both actors explained, stressing that nowadays technology and the internet have become, in a sense, ever-present places to be rather than tools and/or a space for relaxation. Natacha Stevenin pointed out that it is indeed important to understand how someone can become “so [...] filled with hate”, how important social support is as well as how vulnerable people can be to getting manipulated online. The director added that these characters are not just “black and white”, good and bad, but that through their story, it becomes clear why and how they became the way they become.

Tony Kingston added that, for a play that sounds quite dark and serious, there are many rather funny scenes and unexpected turns. The play is both funny and tragic, and rather true to life in its exploration of how far the human (perhaps specifically the male) psyche can go under certain specific circumstances.

A Q&A session is scheduled after the performance on Saturday 5 October 2024 with the writer, actors and director.

Tickets cost €20 (€12 for students) and are available via https://www.neimenster.lu/evenements/the-good-guy/.