IT’S decades since the play “The Boys in the Band” caused a kerfuffle for the moral standards’ police in Canberra.

And I remember well the tut-tutting when a very large plaster copy of Michelangelo’s “David” arrived with much ceremony and no fig leaf at David Jones’ original Monaro Mall emporium for a promotion that had us talking about his attributes.

We’ve come a long way, but Rome of 109-130 AD is making its presence felt in downtown Acton, and this history lesson is boldly laid bare for all to see.

The Street Theatre’s production of “Scandalous Boy” was written and directed by David Atfield. His imagining of the story of Emperor Hadrian and his lover, “the impossibly beautiful young man” Antinous, will no doubt have some patrons confronted, some non-plussed and most ambivalent about the soft-porn aspect of this mix of sex, love, lust and betrayal, inveigling us into the decadence with just the right amount of humour.

The premiere event was sponsored by Hang Ups Picture Framing’s director Mike Welch, happily welcoming all to a project he had no hang ups about supporting.