Foreskin's Lament

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Foreskin's Lament is a play by New Zealand writer Greg McGee that premiered in 1980. It is a drama set in a rugby union changing room after practice and at an after‑match party. The captain is knocked unconscious off stage at the start of Act 1 and again during the game between acts by his teammate Clean, the play’s antagonist. He dies in hospital in Act 2. The final scene has Foreskin speaking directly to the audience in a rugby‑laced monologue, ending with the question, "Whaddarya?"

The play began as a workshop at the New Zealand Playwrights’ Conference in Wellington in 1980 and was produced amid the social unrest around the 1981 Springbok Tour of New Zealand. It was named Best New Zealand Play of 1981. Downstage Theatre Company staged it in 1985 and again in 1995, with some of the original cast returning. The script was updated after the 1981 tour and later revised by the author for a film adaptation titled Skin and Bones.

Eleanor Bishop created an adaptation titled Boys, which premiered with the Auckland Theatre Company in 2017 and was performed at the Court Theatre in Christchurch in 2021. The play’s structure includes Act 1, a second part that offers a commentary by young women, and a third part that presents a deconstructed version of Act 3. The play is set in 1976 and looks ahead to the 1981 Springbok Tour. Some have suggested that the character Clean is based on New Zealand Prime Minister Rob Muldoon. Foreskin’s Lament has been described as a defining critique of redneck rugby culture.