Green Oak Theatre | Review by Freya Rowell
Young Canberrans Shine in When He Cries
25 September 2025
Green Oak Theatre’s When He Cries is the stand-alone sequel to Shaylie Gillies’ previous play If I Could Save Her, produced by the same company in 2021.
The play follows Paddy Eoin (Camden McCooey), a young man sentenced to 10 years in prison after his older brother Séamus passes the blame to him for a robbery gone wrong. Desperate to provide for his younger sister Naoise (Phoebe Chua) and keep her away from the dealings of Séamus’s shady ex-girlfriend Mya (Jennifer Noveski), Paddy struggles with the helplessness that comes with being on the inside. Paddy also meets his cellmate James McGilray (Aleksis Andreitchenko), who is haunted by his past (the events of If I Could Save Her) and a constantly lurking “Shadow” (Kirana De Schutter). As the two boys’ stories become increasingly interconnected, Paddy tries to reach out to the isolated James in the hope of helping his sister and pulling him from the depths of his despair.
Green Oak Theatre co-founder Shaylie Gillies not only wears many hats offstage, writing, directing and producing the play, but also wore many hats onstage on opening Thursday night, understudying an ensemble role including a student, prison guard and doctor.
The set designed by Liz Jones is intentionally run-down in appearance, including a bunk bed that looks so rickety the audience experiences a brief moment of panic every time a character sits, or God forbid stands, on the top bunk. The shabby surroundings provide a sense of the hardships the characters endure. As scenes take place both in and outside the prison, small changes such as window dressings create versatility in locations and the second level provides opportunities for moving through different spaces on the relatively small Belconnen Community Theatre stage.
Green Oak prides itself on creating original work and highlighting the talents of young actors in the local Canberra area. This production is no exception, with much of the cast consisting of year 11 and 12 students. Working with young actors comes with unique challenges, which Gillies and her team have handled through careful casting and costuming. Having many young, similarly aged actors can make it difficult to portray believable power dynamics onstage which is important in a setting that deals so heavily with authority and manipulation. While giving many young people an opportunity to shine, older actors are cast in roles where authority is necessary, such as the prison governor and wise teacher.
Az Cromhout’s costume designs are used to differentiate those in power, not only separating inmates from prison staff or students from teachers, but also subtler dynamics like that between bright but impressionable student Naoise and sneering drug queen Mya, dressing the girls with different levels of maturity. These choices support the talent of the young people involved, who work together to create a strong ensemble. Camden McCooey is intensely likeable as the overly chatty do-gooder Paddy, and Chua’s timidity and quiet hope as Naoise have audiences wishing to protect her as much as her brother does.
Gillies has clearly written the play with young actors in mind. While there are several challenging themes (it is set in a prison after all) they are handled in a manner that feels appropriate and not exploitative, particularly given the characters’ ages. Humour is mixed in well to lighten the mood, and gives the ensemble of inmates ample opportunity to bounce off each other and create a sense of community. The friendship between rowdy but charming Braydon and Toby (Oleg Berezovskiy and James Grudnoff) in particular provides a gentle but welcome release of tension. Flashbacks and nightmares feature throughout the play as James grapples with his guilt. These are generally smooth and well choreographed, though this level of precision could have been better applied to combat scenes, as blows often seemed unsynchronised and overly cautious.
In a time of constant revivals and adaptations it is important to support original work. Green Oak Theatre has produced a fresh play that is engaging, promotes young artists and highlights the importance of standing up against tyranny.
Freya Rowell is a Canberra local who is enjoying re-immersing herself in the city’s theatre scene after living in the United Kingdom for 18 months. Having performed in some productions herself over previous years including Sense and Sensibility (Canberra Rep, 2022), Be More Chill (Budding Theatre, 2021) and Oliver! (Queanbeyan Players, 2019), Freya is looking forward to participating from a different perspective with Canberra Youth Theatre Young Critics. Freya has a Diploma of Communication from the University of Canberra.
