After an extensive period of writing for film, Louis Nowra returns to the stage with "The Boyce Trilogy", an epic saga about the Boyce family, a family made wealthy through property development. The trilogy starts with The Woman with Dog's Eyes which introduces us to the Boyce family as they gather to celebrate the parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Inspired by events that traumatised Sydney's Moran family, the play explores the universal themes of family, love and disappointment. The second part of the trilogy , "The Marvellous Boy", unwraps the story of this notorious Sydney family. Malcolm Boyce is dying at a time when his biggest building project -- and so his whole empire -- is threatened by protesters. He hires an important criminal, the charismatic Ray Pollard, to threaten his enemies. Malcolm gets his son, Luke, to liaise with Ray. Luke not only falls under Ray's spell but also finds himself involved with his father's mistress. The results are tragic. This story follows Luke from detachment into an emotional involvement that will be liberating and then shattering as the consequences of his and his father's moral duplicity emerge.
In the final instalment of the trilogy, "The Emperor of Sydney" , the three sons fight for control of the company as their father lays dying in the master bedroom above the huge Beauchamp mansion living room. The company is near bankruptcy because of a huge stalled project (their father's personal vision) and they are facing a criminal investigation into the father's role in the suspicious death of the project's outspoken critic.
Author Biography:
Louis Nowra was born in Melbourne. His plays include Page 8 (with David Page), The Woman With Dog's Eyes, The Marvellous Boy, The Emperor of Sydney, Inner Voices, Visions, Inside The Island, The Precious Woman, Sunrise, The Golden Age, Capricornia, Byzantine Flowers, The Watchtower, Summer of the Aliens, Cosi, Radiance, The Temple, Crow, Miss Bosnia, The Incorruptible, The Jungle and The Language of the Gods. He has translated The Prince of Homburg, Cyrano de Bergerac and Lulu for the stage. He has also written the libretti for Whitsunday and Love Burns. For television he has written Displaced Persons, Hunger and The Lizard King and for film Map of the Human Heart, Cosi, Heaven's Burning, Radiance, K-19: The Widowmaker and Black and White. His radio plays include Albert Names Edward, The Song Room, The Widows, Sydney and The Divine Hammer. Other writings include nonfiction works The Cheated, Warne's World and Walkabout (in Currency's Australian Screen Classics series); four novels The Misery of Beauty, Palu, Red Nights and Abaza; and two memoirs, The Twelfth of Never and Shooting the Moon. Nowra has won multiple awards and prizes, and lives in Sydney.
