Compulsive Acts explores the films, plays and personality of prolific playwright, novelist, filmmaker and poet Sky Gilbert through the eyes of a handful of the people who have observed his work closely over the past two decades -- as audience members and arts workers. Actors, academics, performance artists, journalists, filmmakers, playwrights, poets and his partner of many years tackle his immense output with a queer eye for the intricacies of a unique and astute aesthetic vision -- a vision that has placed him securely within Canadian Theatre history as an iconic and consistently provocative dramatic force to be reckoned with.

David Bateman is a Toronto-based poet, painter, and arts journalist. He has taught creative writing at various universities across Canada. His four collections of poetry, as well as a collaborative long poem (with Hiromi Goto) were published by Frontenac House Press (Calgary) from 2005 through 2014. His first novel, DR SAD, was published by the University of Calgary Press in November of 2020. A collection of short stories & creative non-fiction entitled A MAD BENT DIVA – an anagram for the author’s name – was published by Hidden Brook Press (Brighton) in 2017.

David Bateman's profile page

When spending time with Sky’s multiple characters, we are reminded that they are constructed out of tiny and discrete elements. But, when they appear on the stage, the page or on film, their figures are monumental, often reflecting back onto the people who play them -- more than the sum of all their parts.

Keith Cole