Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Joel Bray and Peter Paltos are engaging performers, but this often funny theatre-dance work is a bit of a mess
Joel Bray and Peter Paltos are engaging performers, but this often funny theatre-dance work is a bit of a messnew work, Homo Pentecostus, is animated by a series of dichotomies. The first is implicit in the title – Bray’s homosexuality sits in opposition to his Pentecostal upbringing – but others are just as potent.
The piece opens on a prayer meeting – deeply ironic, full of “welcome to Jesus” smiles and gestures of faux-profundity – before sliding into confessional and eventually into a sincere grappling with matters of the spirit. For a while, Bray represents the rationalist and non-believer, with Paltos as the spiritualist. But these distinctions break down over the course of the play, as the two performers deepen their interrogation of belief, faith and religion.
Bray tends to throw a lot of ideas into the pot – as a multidisciplinary artist, he employs dance, speech, audiovisual design and props in a vibrant, unsteady mix – and Homo Pentecostus would benefit from some distillation and clarity of intent. Structurally, it’s a bit of a mess, with some unnecessary repetition and severe pacing issues late in the work. A good 15 minutes could be trimmed from the running time.
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