Cirrus@Austlit

'Silence is not redemption.

'Exploring a shocking chapter in our recent history, Lost Boys is a fierce and compelling new play by award-winning Australian playwright Lachlan Philpott (Silent Disco, The Trouble with Harry), commissioned and developed by Merrigong.

'Cy and Robert Murphy are teenagers living a life of sun and saltwater, but as the sun sets, a malevolent culture of homophobia and violence surfaces, with consequences that ripple across generations.

'Inspired by real events and told through the eyes of three generations of the Murphy family, Lost Boys rips into a dark part of our male-dominated culture, asking how perpetrators of violent crimes live with their unspeakable pasts.

'Commemorating lives lost, this deeply affecting and potent new work forces us to examine secrets held for decades, and prejudices still held today. Bearing witness to our times, this is vital and unflinching work from a compelling voice in Australian theatre. It’s a story that needs to be told.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'‘Little Emperor Syndrome’ is a term used to describe the behavioural time-bomb created by China’s One Child Policy. Introduced in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution as a way of curbing population growth, an entire generation was raised without siblings. Pampered, entitled, and bucking against China’s proud tradition of filial piety, the children of the world’s next superpower were born bearing the weight of their parents’ expectations.