[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Michael Lovestrong’s solo show UNWITNESSED: The Search for Identity After Leaving a Cult, directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson as part of the Soaring Solo Stars Series.
We are all fascinated by cults, aren’t we? How can a person be pulled into one? How is the hold sustained for lifetimes? And of course, how does a person leave?
Michael Lovestrong was literally born into the Jehovah’s Witnesses cult. His parents and their parents before them had been preachers, high up in the organization. In fact, Michael was destined for greatness within the confines of this secretive and in many ways debilitatingly cloistered pseudo religion.
Michael’s story is one that you may think you have heard before, and perhaps you have, but not like this. Not from the heart and mind of Michael Lovestrong. Michael wakes up one morning with the realisation that everyone he loved and everything he believed in was a total lie. Once he broke the fever, there was no going back. He was ostracised, he lost his life, his family, and everything he had worked toward. For Michael, it was a clear choice to leave. But the hardest thing he had ever done.
This play is Michael’s story. His life within the cult, as a child, as an adult and as a man training to become a leader. The expectations, the fiercely held beliefs, the strange abusive routines that were difficult to witness, let alone be a part of. What was it that finally made him walk away, change his life, his name, and his heart? For all that he shares with us during this eye-opening and truly phenomenal play, I’m still not exactly sure. But then maybe neither is he. Either way, Michael has written an astonishingly honest and very moving account of his life so far.
I see a lot of solo shows. They range from wonderful to a good effort. From funny to heartbreaking. From gut wrenching to cerebral and every single one I have seen is more than worthy of my time. But sometimes, every once in a while, one stays with me longer than the others. UNWITNESSED is still swimming around in my head weeks after I saw it.
Michael’s journey, his escape, his recovery, and his testament to freedom is a beautifully written and brilliantly performed piece of theatre. He lays himself utterly bare, and while doing so, he spins his tale like the most masterful storyteller. Perhaps that is the one thing he finally could take away from his life before. The art of connecting to people, to sharing words in such a compelling way that they sit transfixed, hanging on your every word, wishing to be changed, to be taught, and to be saved somehow.
Michael Lovestrong’s UNWITNESSED is a fascinating window into the Jehovah’s Witnesses cult. The ongoing acts of inflicting harm on people, while convincing them that the only way they will be saved is by submitting to the control, manipulation and organised abuse of everyone involved.
Anthropologically speaking, it’s nothing new. You might, in fact, say that all organised religion is cult like at the very least. Once Michael left, he was cut off from his family and friends. He was alone for the first time in his lfe. He was a 30 plus man with nothing. No college, no job experience, no wife, no life. But he never felt more like himself and more alive.
UNWITNESSED is an extraordinary play written and performed by an extraordinary man. A man with the power of his own convictions and a drive to be himself above anything.
If you ever get the chance to see UNWITNESSED by Michael Lovestrong I urge you to take it. It’s a masterclass…
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