Four privileged young men from an elite school are about to participate in the most important debate of their high school career. They will be competing against the girls from their own school, and their topic is “that feminism has failed women.”

The prep time is one hour before the debate with no technology allowed. So for a while, they toss ideas around defining feminism. They don’t really know what it is and offer ideas such as telling girls to wear high heels and to hate men. However, it becomes clear that the students will say whatever they have to win since they feel so much is riding on it. One boy, Jared, keeps repeating , “I love women.” Yet it’s not as clear as to whether they believe what they are saying since they have been groomed with the privilege of their gender. Suddenly there’s an allegation about someone on the team that threatened to derail the debate and the boys begin to turn on one another. That’s where the play veers a bit and loses cohesion.

Each of the four has a unique personality and goal. Owen (played by Emmanuelle Mattana, the playwright) has ‘his’ sights on the White House. David (Renita Lewis) wants a career in business, Jared (Lousia Jacobson) is an artist and Scott (Esco Jouley) hopes for a future in sports. Winning this trophy almost guarantees their way into Ivy League schools.

The playwright satirizes gender by having all the characters played by female and non-binary performers. Her stage directions insist that “All characters are played by female, gender non-conforming and non-binary performers in drag - non-negotiable.”

As the show progresses, it is no longer about the debate and a school trophy. What begins as a topic for debate leads to a discussion of attitudes towards women, homosexuality, and entitlement. These boys are the privileged ones and believe they are the smartest. As these performers play at being men, so are young men taught to behave a certain way. This is most apparent during the silent individual brainstorm session when each boy (albeit quietly) humps and gyrates in ‘manly’ poses.

36-year-old director Dany Taymor (“The Outsiders,” “John Proctor Is The Villain”) has her performers express youthful attitudes and behaviors by interjecting over-the-top physicality and movement in the work. Taymor has become a youthful representative in theater. There was expressive cathartic dancing in “John Proctor…” and now in “Trophy Boys” the students' moves depict masculine behaviors.

I was fascinated by the behavior of a group of young girls sitting in the first few rows of the MCC Theater ‘screaming joyously’ at the actors. I wonder how many of them realized the actors were female or binary or if they just identified with the characters and empathized with the confusion the debaters felt.