By Ernest Kearney — The proselytizing efforts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aka the Mormons, are known and typically dreaded, worldwide, but these efforts have also contributed to making it one of the world’s fastest growing “religions.”
In Lock Your Heart, Elder P., Performer/Writer Robert Perkins offers an absorbing insight into both the psyche of the young Mormons sent out on their two year “rite of passage” by the church, as well as the directives used by the church-governing body to isolate them from the very world they’ve been sent out to convert.
Perkins relates his narrative reading from the thirty-year-old journals he kept during the period he was assigned to spread the gospel of Joseph Smith to the people of Sweden, accenting his tale with the occasional map and photo.
It is this simple and direct approach to his story of two “church-crossed” lovers, and his heartfelt rendering of a love discarded in the name of religious zeal that makes this show so moving and so tragic. He expresses his pain of a path not taken, without bombast or emotional pyrotechnics, but with a sincerity that will remain with those he’s shared it with, who will feel its stinging for some time to come.
Director Amanda Bird wisely does not try to overcoat the staging with any razzle-dazzle, but adds subtle highlighting to the humanity of the piece.
A modest show with a much needed moral: Anytime one speaks the name of “God” in denying love, the speaker is a 
liar.
For that Lock Your Heart, Elder P. takes —
A GOLD MEDAL
♦ ♦ ♦
Lock Your Heart, Elder P
playing during The Fringe at
Studio C (Studio C)
6448 Santa Monica Blvd.
For Complete Show Information: http://hff19.org/5971
For Events, Plays and Other Fun Fringe News and Info: https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/
