Louis Nowra’s Australian family trilogy, ”The Boyce Trilogy” consists of the plays ”The Woman With Dog’s Eyes”, ”The Marvellous Boy” and ”The Emperor Of Sydney”. Property developer Boyce has one goal in life: to complete his final prestige project before his illness finishes him off and the sons take over the firm. In these three plays, Nowra depicts the power struggle between husband and wife, ambition and ideals using a rich, vivid language and sublime suspense. All the plays are completed stories with a main theme.
THE EMPEROR OF SYDNEY takes place in the huge lounge in the family mansion, while the father is dying in the master bedroom. Sons and daughters in laws take turns at watching over the mother, and towards the ending they gradually become more and more indiscrete. The dialogues are boiling and the suspense continues. The youngest son, having risen from being the lost son of the family to the family favourite, ends up taking over the family business.
