Real Men Dream in Black and White @ Greenside

Real Men Dream in Black and White explores the process of becoming a man. In the changing room, one of the final frontiers of ultimate masculinity, the secondary schoolboys hang out, hoping to relish the magazine stolen from Dad's sock drawer. But their anticipation is disappointed when they find the images ugly and repulsive. They have different tastes from Dad and are honest enough to admit it.

These guys are 'manning up'; they inspect their bodies, pose and stare, jostle and challenge one another and the audience like stags or bulls. A young Scottish voice narrates, and gives an anthropologist's description of the passage to manhood and examples of the rites of passage in other cultures, tests of endurance and courage that are fixed by custom.

Apart from some guffy, sentimental background music, in the scene when our guys talk about their positive experiences and models of manhood - of strong, protective older brothers, hardworking dads and patient grandfathers - and a few lost lines, the production is tight and combination of physical theatre and script works well. Stag nighters might do well to leave the lap-dancing clubs as passe and pop along to Real Men Dream in Black and White.