Louis Colaiacovo in BUA's "The Tricky Part"

Between the ages of twelve and fifteen, Martin Moran had a sexual relationship with an older man, a counselor he met at Catholic boys’ camp.” Years later, as an adult, he set out to find and face his abuser. So runs the story of The Tricky Part, the one-person play opening this week at Buffalo United Artists, starring Louis Colaiacovo as Martin Moran.

The play, based on Moran’s book of the same title, tells the story of this complex relationship and the effect it had on the man Moran would become. When the piece was first performed by Moran himself, critics remarked that the piece holds remarkable humor and surprising optimism. It does not quite hold forgiveness. As the notes to the Beacon Press edition explain, “Told with startling candor and disarming humor, The Tricky Part carries us to the heart of a paradox—that what we think of as damage may be the very thing that gives rise to transformation, even grace.”

This is not to say that the piece is devoid of bitterness. Moran realized, retrospectively, that his relationship with “Bob,” who was, paradoxically, both a pedophile and a homophobe, had deprived him of any possibility for a happy transition into life as a homosexual adult. Indeed, says Moran, the experience resulted in thoughts of suicide and influenced a period of compulsive secretive sex.

Moran grew up in an Irish Catholic family outside of Denver, Colorado. His great aunt was a cloistered nun. He recalls his mother inserting comments like “I’d rather one of my children was dead than homosexual” into her conversation. The experience of having his sexual awakening in the coercive embrace of an older man was to have permanent consequences. At the age of 12, Moran immediately felt complicitous in his own abuse.

Interestingly, in 2002 at the height of the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, I had a number of conversations with gay Catholic men whose first sexual experiences revolved around church activities. I took notes at the time. One incident, in particular, resonated for me again upon hearing Moran’s story. A local actor, now middle-aged, recalled serving as an altar boy to a Catholic priest who molested him. He remembered having horribly conflicted feelings, because he was aware of his own attraction to the priest. “He was as handsome as a movie star and half the women of the congregation would position themselves to be in his communion line. So when [the sexual attack] happened, I was conscious of my own desire and terrified at the same time. Other kids might have shrugged it off, but as a Catholic kid who knew he was gay, I felt as if a large hole was about to open in the earth and we were going to go directly to hell.”

Oddly, this man claimed that the experience had no long-term affect on him. Others might doubt that claim, especially in a culture that denies the possibility that men might be victims.

The sex scandals of the late 1990s resulted in arrests, shocking headlines, huge financial settlements and the resignation of Cardinal Law as Archbishop of Boston in December of 2002. More than any of that, however, those events placed a spotlight on the victimization of boys and its consequences. I think The Tricky Part will resonate with Buffalo audiences.

The Tricky Part, directed by Kelli Bocock Natale, runs from April 13 to May 5, Friday and Saturdays at 8pm at the Main Street Cabaret, 672 Main Street, (886-9239).