The Insolent Boy is a sardonic, absurd and sensual work that mines the dark territory of the human heart. Tender in moments and bitingly satirical in tone, The Insolent Boy is consumed by this question: Why are we here? Are we moral creatures? And if so does morality exist in a cruel and unforgiving world?

Amidst the prickly brambles and low boughs of an Annapolis Valley Apple Orchard, the lonesome sound of a baby crying interrupts a farmer moving bins around his row of Gravensteins. The child`s discovery causes an immediate uproar within the quiet community of farmers and local tradespeople, but despite valiant efforts to find the culprits, the child is headed for an orphange when fate intervenes in the form of an aging Anglican Rector and his wife, Hugh and Bee Davis, who have never had children of their own. At first things appear promising for the child. The little boy, christened Selwyn Davis, appears to be something of a child prodigy. The old couple coddle the little boy who can quote scripture and who quickly develops a proficiency in the flugelhorn and violin.

However are there are those in the rural community who do not take so kindly to the 'wonder boy'. Despite his keen artistic sense, the boy is also shy, awkward and masks his vulnerability with an acid tongue which alienates him from the local kids. When an introduction to the children of the Penny Creek Nursery School goes badly, the neurotic and nervous child unwittingly commits a series of highly desperate and comic public gaffes in an effort to endear himself to his classmates. But it all goes terribly wrong: Selwyn causes the Nursery school to swarm with wasps and bees, stands on a Christmas pageant stage and curtly announces Father Christmas` murder, indentures a fat girl to his service and is responsible for a local farmer`s skewering of a best friend`s pet Daschund. Naturally paranoid and highly neurotic, Selwyn soon withdraws into himself. When Selwyn is told the truth of his abandonment the absurdity of this all makes him denounce people and develop a closer relationship with animals than people.

Selwyn mates a sister and brother rabbit in an attempt to create a imaginary family. But the savagery of the act, the screaming of the doe rabbit combined with mothers crushing of the unwanted bunnies cause the sensitive Selwyn to obsess about the dark aspects of human existence. Soon Selwyn begins to act peculiarly, screaming, when confronted, in the same hi-pitched tone as the rabbit. Naturally this absurd scream alienates him further from the community and he is sent to a child psychologist where he meets and falls in love with the pretty, but vulnerable, Charlene. When Selwyn gets Charlene pregnant all hell breaks loose. Rather than face the shame Charlene`s mother absconds with Charlene and the baby son to the States.

Frustrated and heartbroken Selwyn heads west to Vancouver, where his life begins to unravel. He gets robbed, loses touch with Charlene and his own adoptive parents and begins a downward spiral until he stumbles into a job as a roadie for a Vancouver rock band. When the lead singer in the band is injured, Selwyn`s peculiarities of habit and hi-pitched rabbit scream make him a natural replacement as lead singer - just as the rock band releases its biggest ever international hit - Kill The Pain. As the acclaim and booze and pills swallow him up Selwyn must face his rootlessness, his search for identity and, when a mysterious parcel arrives in the mail, the final burning question: his desire to know where it is he truly comes from.