Homo Pentecostus is described as an odyssey of self-discovery and liberation, as 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.
Bray’s previously got rave reviews for his previous show Daddy and now he’s back with this new and deeply personal work.
OUTinPerth caught up with the artist as his show arrives at PICA, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts.
Speaking to Graeme Watson, Bray said the material for the work drew on his own life growing up in a Pentecostal church community and his experience of leaving that community, being jettisoned into a wider world and discovering his own identity.
“I guess I’ve been sitting on this for my whole life in many ways. All works are autobiographical and I tend to mine my own personal life story, and that of my family to make my work.
“Growing up in the Pentecostal church and then quite dramatically leaving when I left to go to university, and came out as queer, and moved to the city, leaving it all behind. I always knew I needed to come back to it and make a work about it, but I knew I also had to give it a certain amount of space and time for me to be able to do it.” Bray said of his motivation to create the interdisciplinary work about his own life.
After growing up in the regional town of Orange in New South Wales Bray packed his bags and ended up studying dance and performance at WAAPA, but it wasn’t his first inclination. Initially he considered studying marketing and public relations at his local regional university thinking he might become a preacher and use his new found PR skills to encourage more people to follow the teachings of his church.
So important was the church in his life, Joel recalls a time when every part of his being was linked to praise and worship.
“I was so invested in all of the stuff around church, like youth group, and we were there six times a week. It was cold.” he recalls of how he felt in his teenage years.
Bray had realised that he was queer but he recalls in his conservative community, he didn’t know how to proceed with his life.
“There was this boy in the year above me, in hindsight, he was trying to start something with me, and I had the hots for him big time. He was gorgeous.
“He drove me places, he’d pick me. I was working at KFC and he picked me up after my shift from the drive through, and drove me to the top of the hill above the hockey fields, and we sat there next to each other, and I just didn’t know what to do.
“He made 90% of the moves, all I had to do was reach out and it would have been a thing. I just was so locked in my fear and and doctrine that I couldn’t do it.” Bray said.
The artist shared that his work which uses dance and theatre to express his journey is one that resonates with many audience members and its not unusual for people to linger after the show to share their own experiences of religious upbringing, or of being swept into the Pentecostal church movement by a friend who took them along to an event without them realising it’s religious connection.
“So many people have that story,” Bray said. “I share the stage with Peter Paltos, who is an incredible actor. He came into the church as an adult, when he was eighteen. He talks about it in the work, he was trying to cure himself of being gay, basically.”
Homo Pentecostus is at PICA until 26 October.
