ROW allows an audience into the experiences of Sonny, a freshly emacipated "kept-boy", exploring relationships of sex and power on the margins of culture. Like so many other survivors of the Indian Residential School system, he was robbed of his identity, while his flesh was fetishised by the church. After abuse by the church, and more than a decade of selling himself to subsequent men, he finds himself suddenly free, yet perhaps long in the tooth for his profession. We explore with him both his new freedom, and his bondage from three points in his life. The play asks how, after years being used as a sexual plaything, does such a person feel, interact, and negotiate with love and sex? It looks at power, innocence, bondage, Catholicism, and how these ideas both re-inforce and contradict each other in Sonny's world.
Keywords: Native-Canadian Aboriginal Residential-school, LGBTQ, prostitute, kept-boy, priest, New Orleans
Year Printed: 2017
First Produced August 9-17 2014 Theatre Passe Muraille Toronto
Running TIme:
60 minutes
Acts: 2
Male Cast: 3
Other Cast: 1
Total Cast: 4
Comments: 1 role for musician