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photo: Julia Sweeney in rehearsal

Letting Go of God

great reviews for the book by Julia Sweeney

The Los Angeles Times, in a review by Rob Kendt, (Oct. 14, 2004) titled “Finding God’s Funny Bone” calls her show “brave, hilarious” and a “gale-force breath of fresh air.” Kendt noted that “the humbly sage Sweeney has needling questions that can’t be swatted away… While she scores some easy, flawlessly deadpan laughs at the expense of Mormonism, Deepak Chopra, astrology and Catholicism, the tradition she says she was happily raised in, she is after much bigger game than cheap disdain. As she says to an imaginary God she’s at last parting with near show’s end: ‘It’s because I take you so seriously that I can’t bring myself to believe in you.’”

Notes Kendt, “Sweeney delivers her monologue with her trademark blend of ironic confidentiality and best friend candor. “Believers of all stripes and intensities, as well as non-believers who may scoff a little too facilely will be challenged and disarmed with stick-in-your-throat laughter by Sweeney’s utterly uncynical, blusteringly honest testimony.”

The L.A. Weekly placed “Letting Go Of God” in its Pick Of The Week and then its “recommended” spot. L.A. Weekly’s Steve Mikulan wrote: “At times ‘Letting Go Of God’ is gruesomely funny, especially when, during a Bible Study Class, Sweeney discovers the Old Testament’s Cro-Magnon bigotry, while imagining the Christian Book of Revelation as a bad acid trip.”

Wenzel Jones, for Backstage West (Oct. 20, 2004) began his review by saying: “My vocabulary is deficient in superlatives … What she achieves, though, is a quiet perfection, accompanied rich laughter, which gently takes you by the hand and leads you through — to employ the previous working title of the piece — her beautiful loss-of-faith story.”

Jones adds, “Watching Sweeney shamble about the lovely set, which is piled high with books and religious imagery, is like being privileged to spend a couple of hours alone with your very favorite person as she putts about her way-cool house.” He concluded, “Sweeney may have lost her faith in God, but she’s certainly restored mine in theater.”

Julio Martinez wrote in Variety, “Sweeney is a consummate storyteller with exquisite comic timing.”

Jeff Favre, writing for The Daily Breeze wrote: “This show is one of the most captivating, intelligent and emotionally honest pieces of theatre to come along in many years.”

Les Spindle, in Frontiers, wrote “This heartfelt and cerebral show leaves one with the warm glow of a consummate artist at the peak of her craft.”