In the premiere of his new solo show \u2013 part confessional comedy, part opera s\u00e9ance, part love letter to lost innocence \u2013 Canadian tenor, writer, and composer Isaiah Bell (Antinous in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright and Daniel MacIvor\u2019s Hadrian) traces the roots and ramifications of the war inside.\u00a0The Book of My Shames<\/i>\u00a0takes a unique perspective on the conflict between our naked primal longing and that basic modern need to make everything seem OK. It manages to find the humour in a gaslighting Evangelical cult and the pathos in a terrible teen-angst play, and to bring curiosity and compassion to parts of the human experience most of us would rather ignore.<\/p>\n
Isaiah says: \u201cI\u2019m a good and happy modern gay, thanks very much: sufficiently erudite, reasonably camp, ambitious, polite. But there\u2019s this other me that\u2019s at odds with all that; this tender part that has been left behind in the dark. Shame maintains the gap between us. So I\u2019m reaching out. This is my Rosetta Stone between two halves of a broken heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hybrid music-theatre piece offsets rapid-fire monologues with an unorthodox array of music old and new, including an expansive original memory opera. It makes us laugh while honestly asking: What would it take to really change? How do we learn to love when we\u2019ve turned on ourselves? Is it too late?<\/p>\n
Created and performed by Isaiah Bell
\nwith Sean Guist, director and dramaturge
\nand Darren Creech, pianist<\/p>\n