Noël, ÉricThe Loving Gaze of Messed up BoysCes regards amoureux de garçons altérés

Sitting on the bed in room 158, I imagine.
The story.
I imagine I’m telling the story.
That I have that kind of power.
I don’t have to run anymore,
from the fear of showing myself,
the shame:
my thinness,
my ticks,
my dilated pupils,
my confusion.
I imagine I’m in a play,
that Room 158 is a stage,
that there’s an audience,
there,
right there,
stuffed in the doorway,
I’m acting,
I’m doing a monologue,
a rant for Manu that starts with:
On the door of room 158,
the attendant knocks three times.

In a gay bathhouse in Montreal, a tiny room becomes one man’s confessional. Drugged to the bone, he’s locked himself away for 60 hours, forever. His body is no longer his own, and his words, fuelled by crystal meth, are relentless. Amidst the chaos, he tells us – as best he can – of the last few years, of the last few hours. In the black hole of romantic grief, his head full and his heart broken, he struggles with his desire to disappear.

The play won the Governor General's Award for French-language Drama in 2025.