Intrepid Theatre

Co-presented with Pacific Opera Victoria as part of the Incoming Festival. The Book of My Shames was originally scheduled as part of UNO Fest 2020, pivoted to an online sneak peek at UNO Online, and this brand new chamber version of the show makes its Victoria debut in May. 3-Show Passes cannot be used for this show.

Following each performance, join the co-creators Isaiah and Sean for a casual post-show talkback.

This insightful and tender exploration of life’s awkward underbelly is animated by sharp wit and occasionally shocking candour. Charismatic Canadian tenor, writer, and composer Isaiah Bell guides the audience through the vicissitudes of a life defined by what it’s missing — or, as he calls it, ‘The Story of a Hole’. Persistent emptiness of heart drives a young man out from the shadow of a restrictive fundamentalist cult, into obsessive passions for bad men, and onward to a successful but strangely hollow life on the stage. Combining rapid-fire monologues and personal confessions with a diverse array of original music — chansons and ballads, cleverly touching cabaret songs, and expansive operatic scenas — this “comic, wrenching, and personal tour-de-force” reminds us that desire, shame, and the longing to be loved are themes common to us all… Isaiah’s version just includes both pathos and a wink.

“Bell’s tale is one of small answers that speak bravely of truths that are bigger than all of us… The confessional one-person show has to be an actor’s greatest challenge. Done wrong, the performance wallows in self-indulgence. Done right, one person’s perspective can illuminate other lives. Isaiah Bell achieves the latter. In spoken words and in song, he made the themes in his own life echo in our own recollections… about our own humanity, of being loved, and of loving and accepting ourselves for who we are.”
— Toronto Star

Co-creators Isaiah & Sean are interviews by Rebecca Hass on Pacific Opera Victoria’s Listening Party Podcast, listen to it HERE.

UNO Fest Online Meet the Artists – Isaiah Bell

Credits:
Co-created, composed and performed by Isaiah Bell
Co-created and directed by Sean Guist
Lighting design by Nicole Malcolm

The Book of My Shames has been developed with support from Pacific Opera Victoria and Intrepid Theatre.

Photo: Dahlia Katz

About the artists:

Isaiah Bell’s work as a singer is characterized by his “beautiful tenor, command of style, and natural stage presence” (Broadway World) and by performances of “haunting beauty… and glowing vocal skill” (New York Times). He recently created the role of Antinous, opposite Thomas Hampson as Hadrian, in the world premiere of Rufus Wainwright and Daniel MacIvor’s Hadrian at the Canadian Opera Company. As a writer and composer, he has created four operas, and is the composer behind the touring drag-cabaret show Cocktales with Maria.

This season, Isaiah makes his debut at Vancouver Opera (The Barber of Seville), and returns to sing with Opera Atelier and the Toronto Symphony, and at Carnegie Hall. Recent performance highlights include the Madwoman in Curlew River (directed by Mark Morris, at BAM), Britten’s War Requiem at the National Arts Centre, Owen Wingrave at the Aldeburgh and Edinburgh festivals, and Acis and Galatea at Lincoln Center.

Arts administrator, director, performer, producer and queer artist, Sean Guist is the founding curator of Intrepid Theatre’s queer theatre festival, OUTstages, and is the Co-Artistic & Marketing Director at Intrepid. He holds his MFA (2012) in Directing and BFA in Performance from the University of Lethbridge. Recent credits include: directing Sunday in Sodom (playreading at The Belfry’s SPARK Festival), Tom at the Farm (Puente Theatre’s WorldPlay), Side by Side by Sondheim (Saltwater Inc), Down Dangerous Passes Road (independent), Menotti’s The Telephone (U of L), and Michel Marc Bouchard’s The Madonna Painter (MFA project); producing (and performing in) Pretty, Witty and GAY! (2007-2009). Sean is also on the Board of Directors for indie dance company Broken Rhythms and Pacific Opera Victoria and can be seen on drag stages as the bearded queen, Woofie.