Awake, Gay And Writing A Play ***

The set is immediately a curiosity. Some chairs have been arranged in an unconventional way. A suited man with a briefcase, John, systematically introduces himself to every member of the audience and asks them a simple question – “what makes you happy?”

The sense of disquiet continues with the set seating now being used for a game of musical chairs… with those eliminated condemned as “damned”. The eventual winner receives eternal salvation. To paraphrase David Mamet, there is no second prize.

Awake, Gay And Writing A Play thus begins to unravel.

It is the almost entirely true, autobiographical, story of Richard Dale, who had been raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, against the wishes of his father. After 30 years of belonging, he had risen to a position of significance within their community.

That is, he did, until his repressed homosexuality eventually came to the fore, doing missionary work in China. After his physical and emotional yearnings could no longer be kept in check, Dale confesses his ‘sin’ to the community elders.

Jehovah’s Witnesses adhere to a series of strict rules that sit uneasily with wider society, prohibiting or discouraging practices including birthday celebrations, toasts, Easter and Christmas festivities, blood transfusions and political participation….and of course homosexuality.

The repercussions for Dale are manifold: he loses his status, is subjected to additional study, receives public reproval and is forbidden from contacting Stephen, his love interest. He is deeply conflicted. Seeing himself as a good man, he struggles to reconcile his own desires and sense of self with the condemnation handed down by the elders.

Eventually, Dale disassociates himself from the community, a seismic moment in his life. The certainties he had long accepted as immutable truths begin to crumble. Looking back, he comes to see his upbringing as a process of indoctrination, and the organisation resembling a cult. He draws on William J. Schnell’s 30 Years a Watchtower Slave: The Confessions of a Converted Jehovah’s Witness, a book that reinforces his growing doubts. The scales fall from his eyes, and even his understanding of his relationship with his now-deceased father shifts dramatically.

Dale is an engaging storyteller, and his journey makes for compelling theatre. There is much here about the search for personal truth, a theme central to theatrical practice and exemplified by Sanford Meisner’s approach to acting. Awake, Gay And Writing A Play is a charmingly crafted account of Dale’s own journey towards self-knowledge, as he unpicks the beliefs that once defined him and begins to find the freedom to live on his own terms, developing, finally, a sense of agency.