The one act dramedy musical play that chronicles the coming out story of Mormon returned missionary, ex-temple married, father, former male escort, former drug user, and excommunicated LDS Church member Steven Fales will now grace the stage in London.
Critically acclaimed, the play was awarded the Overall Excellence Award at the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival. It received the 2008 Oscar Wilde Award Nomination for Outstanding New Writing in the Theatre at the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival and a New York Outer Critics Circle Award Nomination for Outstanding Solo Performance.
Fales is quoted on http://www.affirmation.org/:
Fales says ‘I wrote the play so that my children would some day be able to understand their gay father” and he adds “I kept thinking that if I were to die, there wasn’t anyone I could fully trust to tell my kids who their ‘wicked’ gay dad really was and how much I loved them.”
(Fales’ former mother-in-law is celebrated Mormon poet Carol Lynn Pearson whose autobiography Good-bye, I Love You (Random House 1986), poignantly recounts her relationship with her gay ex-husband who died of AIDS in her home. Steven Fales married their oldest daughter, Emily and together they have two children whom they raise in Salt Lake City, Utah.)
He also wrote a book with the same title that was a recent finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.
I saw his play here in San Francisco last year and found it to be a very enjoyable, touching experience. Fales is able to deliver his coming out story with a very human truthfulness with all his foibles laid bare but with a sincerity at its core. His love for his children comes through, as he struggles as a man who comes to terms with his sexual identity in the middle of a marriage, in a conservative religious environment. It is a convulsive, messy coming out process for him. Thank goodness, he survived it to write and perform this play.
Confessions of a Mormon Boy is a MUST SEE for anyone who is interested about how someone overcomes the impossible….and who lives to sing and laugh about it.
Information on the London Performance Run
CONFESSIONS OF A MORMON BOY
Written and performed by Steven Fales
28 July to 30 August
Wednesday to Saturday at 9.30pm Sunday & Monday at 7.30pm (90 minutes)
Post-show discussions on Mondays 4, 11, 18 and 25 August.
Tickets £15 concessions £12 Ticket Sales 0870 033 2733
New End Theatre, 27 New End, Hampstead London NW3 1JD
www.newendtheatre.co.uk
5 minutes from Hampstead tube fully air-conditioned
After all the years of your struggle to be who you are, I’ll bet this is a bittersweet play for you, isn’t it. I would really like to see this play sometime. You have some really great articles bro, I always enjoy your weblog. Love you and G. Marsh
Congratulations to you! That is a wonderful accomplishment!
Marsha, I do hope you see the play one day. It is funny but has a wonderful message. Maybe when it plays again here in the states.
Lwayswright, I am sure Steven Fales appreciates your support. I hope you see his play one day.