Join an odyssey of self-discovery and liberation. Actor, dancer, and writer, Joel Bray invites you to an intimate exploration of his secret queer identity within the confines of a 1990s Pentecostal Church.

Partake in a shared ritual that immerses you in the transformative power of music, movement, and collective ritual. From the humble church halls to the vibrant disco dance floors, Homo Pentecostus peels back layers of conflicting allure and hidden shame to illuminate our quest to embrace our true selves. 

Awaken your spirit. Shake up your perceptions. Homo Pentecostus is an ecstatic testament to resilience, love, and the pursuit of personal truth.

LEAD ARTIST'S NOTE

In the late 19th Century, John Stuart Mill coined the term Homo Economicus to describe an imagined perfectly rational person. At the same time, the seeds of Pentecostalism were being laid by the industrious Wesleyans who believed that one needn’t wait for Heaven to be perfect; rather one can attain spiritual sanctification here on Earth.

The Pentecostal Movement distinguishes itself from other Christian faiths with this emphasis on the Holy Spirit ‘corner’ of the Holy Trinity. The world is seen through a Spiritual prism: an epic, ongoing battle between angelic and demonic forces. Pentecostalism and Capitalism have developed hand-in-hand ever since and the two have fused in the phenomenon of the Megachurch, the global paragon of which we have here in Australia: Hillsong.

The Pentecostal Church is also profoundly homophobic. Many young Queers have been subjected to ‘faith healing’, basically conversion therapy in ‘spiritual camouflage’. And I was one of them. In fact I was a passionate ‘Hillsonger’. Until I suddenly wasn’t. I left the Church, closed that book and never looked back.

Until now.

Making this work has been revelatory, and it’s been healing. One of the many surprises has been how much Pentecostal aesthetics, and ways of being, moving and communicating are coded into my very DNA. I am, in so many ways, a Homo Pentecostus.

I’ve had two extraordinary fellow pilgrims on this ‘Road to Damascus’: co-director Emma Valente and co-performer Peter Paltos. Peter has been unerringly generous in sharing his, and his family’s, story and his continued keen spirituality has been very present in the room and has caused us all to handle this material with a greater sensitivity. The resulting work is far more nuanced thanks to him. He’s also hilarious and the process has been a very Queer delight.

Emma is one of my absolute favourite theatremakers, and it’s been a joy to peek behind the curtain and witness the brilliance up close. Her capacity to hold vast amounts of data and to continually nudge our sprawling tangle of materials into a clear almost narrative has been quite breathtaking to witness. It has allowed me to be my full chaotic self and head down creative tangents, safe in the knowledge that she is grabbing anything useful. It has been an absolute joy.

The three of us wrote Homo Pentecostus through interviewing each other, recording and re-learning. The resulting work is a conversation between two Queer men discovering each other, their shared experiences of religion and culture and, just as importantly, their differences. So this work is woven from our own autobiographies, yet it is also fictionalised and incomplete.

I want to thank and honour my family and my Mother especially. No one knew that they were, unwittingly, writing a career’s worth of contemporary performance when they were raising (and being raised alongside) me. So Peter and I want to thank our parents and our siblings for their patience, love and generosity in allowing me to tell our shared stories - warts and all.

Homo Pentecostus, has been made by a village. Kate Davis, Marco Cher-Gibbard, Jess Keepence and Katie Sfetkidis have all brought, not just their own unique skill sets, but have been co-theatremakers in the room. I am profoundly grateful to you all for this strange, beautiful world we have crafted together.

I also want to thank all the artists and Queer folk who shared their stories with me in the early days of researching this work, in particular Rachel Coulson and Andrew Trelour. Thanks to  Jacinta Anderson and Alice Darling. A big ‘Mandang Guwu’ to my chosen family up in Wagga-Wagga: to Juanita Hemmings for the kangaroo-skin kilt and to Aunties Cheryl Penrith and Jacky Ingram for the cultural care and oversight.

Thank-you to Matt Lutton and all the team at The Malthouse for letting this nutty Blackfella choreographer take one of your stages, for saying "just go for it” and then for supporting me and the team the whole way through. And a huge thank-you to Veronica Bolzon, the second half of Joel Bray Dance. You’re my partner in crime and I couldn’t do any of this without you.

Finally, thank-you to Chris Cheers. I love you, Baby.

- Joel Bray