Engaging Love Letters

At one point during A.R. Gurney's Love Letters, Andy comments, "Letters are a way of presenting yourself in the best possible light." Although few playwrights consider letters as a way of presenting drama "in the best possible light," A.R. Gurney proves that one can make an exciting play based solely on letters.

The only characters in Love Letters, Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (Richard Kiley) and Melissa Gardner (Lauren Bacall), sit facing the audience throughout the entire play, reading the letters they have received from each other over their sixty year romance. Although this may sound like an extremely boring night at the theater, it keeps the audience completely transfixed.

Love Letters

dir. John Tillinger

at the Wilbur Theatre

Through March 1

The Wilbur Theater will run the show for three weeks, but change the actors each week--from February 11-16 Lauren Bacall and Richard Kiley, from February 18-23 Jane Curtin and Edward Herrmann, and from February 25-March 1 Charlton Heston and Alexis Smith.

The theater had planned to run Love Letters for only two weeks, but added a third week because of its success.

John Tillinger directs all three combinations of actors. Although Love Letters does not demand the complex direction required in other plays, like blocking, Tillinger does make some important contributions. He has the characters avoid looking at each other--even though their letters are an ongoing dialogue. While one character reads the letter, the other responds to it without looking at the reader.

This technique prevents the characters from slipping into a real conversation and upholds the authenticity of the play's intended focus on letters.

This style of indirect conversation works because Gurney's script is so strong. He keeps the relationship of Andrew and Melissa exciting, touching and humorous by never lingering too long on one subject. The script keeps the audience engaged because it moves along quickly. At one point Andrew says to Melissa, "Mother said you were going to get married." She responds, "I was, I did, I'm not."

Because of the structure of the play, Gurney has the ability to introduce facts like Melissa's marriage and divorce without a contrived lead-in--and with humor. Although much time may elapse between letters during the play, Gurney keeps the audience well-informed of pertinent events. While it is difficult for a typical drama to relate sixty years in two hours, Gurney's style allows him to do so effectively.

The idea of introducing facts unexpectedly also opens the door to a wealth of humor. Having not mentioned his children since their birth, Andrew says, "The boys are out of trouble. Nicky seems to be off drugs now."

Gurney exhibits a fine sense of humor throughout the rest of the play. He avoids falling into romantic over-sentimentality by interspersing humor with touching dialogue. For example, when Andrew and Melissa's fifty-year relationship finally involves its first instance of lovemaking, Melissa says, "We're two uptight old WASPs going at it like a sale at Brooks Brothers."

Love Letters keeps the audience sighing for the tenderness of a long romance and laughing from all the funny stories that come from that romance. In the performance I saw, Bacall and Kiley transformed the theater into an intimate setting, giving the audience a privileged glimpse into the private lives of Andrew and Melissa.

Both Bacall and Kiley bring class to their characters, and make them come alive. Their reactions to each other's reading, although subtle, work well. Their timing allows the letters to sound like a conversation, but prevents us from forgetting the importance of the letters as the foundation for their "conversation."

Although I have not seen Curtin and Herrmann or Heston and Smith (for obvious reasons), it seems hard to imagine either pair lousing up Gurney's script. Each of the four actors boasts extensive stage experience, and the roles of Andy and Melissa should pose no problem for them. In fact, it seemed that Kiley and Bacall enjoyed their roles, and they made the portrayal of Andy and Melissa seem effortless.

Even if Herrmann/Curtin or Heston/Smith fall short of Kiley and Bacall's performance, Love Letters will still be a witty, poignant success.