Review by Sophia Gilet
A funny and at times freaky show that is fueled by kpop dance, nutella, fries and millennial angst. Boys taste better with nutella sets the harsh reality of Aggy and Frederick against the cute dances, songs and flash jumps in time. And lots of Nutella. An obscene amount of Nutella really.
The venue is the chemistry room in the Old Girls School in East Perth. A small stage with velvet curtains hanging at the back. The set is plain with a little almost shrine set at the back with a laptop sided by 2 large Mcdonalds fries.
This show has beautiful moments of total honesty and rawness that has you wishing you had your favourite comfort food at hand. Although I will never look at nutella the same way again.
At the heart of this experience is a friendship which is travelled throughout the show. Aggy and Frederick are both incredibly frank and funny, bring to stage the most horrific moments of rejection and shame. They share these awful experiences and you get to see them move through them. To see the answer to: "how do you cope?" With themes of sexual acceptance, self love and binge eating, this show is powerful while still keeping the audience laughing nonstop.
As Aggy brings the nutella out and it gets more and more visceral. The Nutella almost becomes it's own character.
Boys taste better with Nutella is heart breaking.
Your heart goes out to them and I ended up just wanting to protect them. The sad fact of the matter is these stories are far more common than we are led to believe with statistics for online bullying, mental health and relationship breakdowns being at an all time high. As the story was told it was hard not to see and connect it to the stories of friends and family that had experienced very similar events.
There is a brief allusion to self help which is immortalised on a postcard left on each seat. Which has a sweet starting quote over a beautiful background that ends up just twisting the knife into your self esteem. I took mine home. The postcard is a lot like the show where we see Aggy and Frederick start a self improvement and then fail miserably by falling back into their disgusting habits.
This show is high energy both these talented performers dance and are incredibly physical all the way through. Enthusiastic and desperate for love Aggy seeks it in relationships which she changes herself for and Frederick seeks it in the acceptance of anonymous men on the internet.
Perhaps the true love story is the story of Aggy and Frederick and their friendship. Knowing they have each other you know that they are loved and will be ok. They grow together a freakishly funny story that throws away all sorts. Throws food. Throws innuendo and throws shade.
Boys taste better with Nutella warms the heart and leaves you certain that no matter what life throws at them Aggy and Frederick have each other. A moving look into the lives of two incredible people whose bravery in this performance is a gift.
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All opinions and thoughts expressed within reviews on Theatre Travels are those of the writer and not of the company at large.