In 2013, Luke O’Donovan is arrested after a knife fight at a New Year’s party. The media portrays him as a maniac who went on a stabbing spree. Luke says he’s the victim of a queer-bashing, punished for fighting back. In 2014, theatre artist Johnnie Walker begins writing letters to Luke in prison and working on a new play.
A fierce and freewheeling exploration of a powerful true story, Shove It Down My Throat puts queerness, identity, and complicity through a theatrical kaleidoscope as Johnnie sifts through the different versions of Luke’s story — and the different versions of Luke — in search of the ever-elusive truth.
Keywords: Toronto, queer, LGBT, true crime, meta
First produced at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto ON, 2019
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Biography, Dark Comedy
Acts: 2
Run time: 120 minutes
Suitable for students 16+
Content notes: Contains coarse language, sexual content, violence, homophobia/transphobia, hate crime
Cast size: 7 actors
Male roles: 6
Trans/Non-Binary/Gender Non-Conforming roles: 1
Casting notes:
Suggested Doubling
● Bitter / Stephanie / Other Inmate / Dixie Carter / Bro 3 / Party Animal
● Woke / Leonard / Manager / Atlanta
● Campy / Bloody Man / Other Inmate / Bro 2 / DJ
● Flirt / Mika / Other Inmate / Bro 1
● Masc / Kirby / Inmate / Preclearance Agent / Bro 5 / Erin
● Them / Madison / The Prisoner / Bro 4
"...the playwright has crafted an eclectic and powerfully dark 'comic' drama about individuals trying to stay afloat in a sea of potentially misidentified words and acts."
-- Bateman Reviews
"Shove It Down My Throat is not just gloriously theatrical, it is gloriously gay."
-- Drew Rowsome, My Gay Toronto