As a gay man a title like Bottoming For Jesus was always going to catch my attention, but what Michael R Speciàle delivers, though, is far more thoughtful and affecting than the deliciously provocative title suggests.
Speciàle tells the extraordinary story of converting himself to Mormonism at fifteen while already struggling with his sexuality. He wasn’t born into the faith – instead, he sought out a belief system that might somehow contain or erase something he already knew about himself.
The show mixes cabaret, storytelling, audience participation and gloriously explicit queer humour. Judy Garland numbers bookend the hour, while accompanist Jeremiah Ginn gives the musical sections warmth and shape. Speciàle’s singing voice is particularly effective because there is a gentleness and purity to his delivery that allows the vulnerability beneath the humour to emerge.
The audience participation works better than I expected. Early on, strangers are asked to share something they fear, creating a surprising sense of intimacy. Later, audience members give voice to real correspondence from Speciàle’s past. When one reads a deeply personal letter from his mother, you could have heard a pin drop.
The most compelling material concerns his Mormon mission to Paraguay and the guilt of becoming effective at converting others to a faith that was failing him so profoundly.
Some may find the collision of religion, sexuality and explicit humour uncomfortable. But for me, beneath the filth and laughter was something beautifully simple… We can spend our lives trying to conform to somebody else’s idea of who we should be, when the only person we really need to become is ourselves.
Bottoming For Jesus 22:40, ZOO Southside – The Studio until August 30
