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| Matte Orme & Jane Welch in Love Letters. Photo courtesy of Bunbury Theatre. |
Love
Letters
Written by
A. R. Gurney
Directed
by Steve Woodring
Reviewed
by Cristina Martin
Entire
contents copyright © 2013 Cristina Martin. All rights reserved.
My apologies
to the Muses, but Love has got to be one of the most prolific sources of
artistic inspiration there is. Think of how many creative works are born of a
need to describe or express this essential phenomenon. We enjoy exploring what
it can make people do; and when we are
the ones in its grip, we feel compelled to let everyone know. There’s talking about Love (representing, examining,
drawing universal conclusions); and then there’s talking to the Beloved, the need to communicate to the object of one’s
affections, spawning a unique sub-genre of creative expression.
A. R.
Gurney’s Love Letters – currently in
production by the Bunbury Theatre Company under the direction of Steve Woodring
– is about the letters two people write to one another precisely as the play is those letters. We witness Melissa
Gardner (Jane Welch) and Andrew Makepeace Ladd, III (Matt Orme), now in their
twilight years, seated onstage amidst a sleek, uncomplicated set, reading aloud
the letters they have written to one another over a lifetime of correspondence. Their words attain a transcendent primacy.
Looking
into the performance history of Love
Letters reveals that the play has been staged many times since its
publication in 1989. It has featured many celebrated actors over the years – as
Bunbury’s program tells us: Swoosie Kurtz and Richard Thomas, Sarah Jessica
Parker and Matthew Broderick, and Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman are just a
few of them. It’s often a go-to show that can be pulled together quickly
because the lines don’t require memorization.
But
there’s reading, and then there’s reading. Jane Welch and Matt Orme may have
scripts before them, but in no way does that prevent either one from delivering
a superb and polished performance. With their voices, body language and facial
expressions, they re-create an entire world for us. Within that world are these
two very relatable characters who come to life in not three, but four
dimensions: both Welch and Orme are excellent at evoking Melissa and Andy at
the age they are when each letter is written. Given a correspondence begun in elementary
school and continuing into old age, to portray the evolution of these
characters convincingly is no small task.
Welch’s
Melissa is feisty, frank and often very funny. Her eyes twinkle, and even her wordless
reactions to Andy’s letters speak reams. For his part, Orme portrays boyish
gangliness, adolescent concupiscence and adult gravitas by turns, suggesting
each skillfully. In many ways, the characters are a study in contrasts, but
they’re well balanced; it’s no wonder Melissa and Andy are such good friends.
Melissa
balks at letter writing on various occasions, claiming it’s boring or
preferring the immediacy of the telephone, but Andy is insistent. He hates the
telephone, saying, “A phone call is dead as soon as it’s over!” Throughout
their single-sex East Coast boarding school years pre-World War II, over the
course of world travels, and into adulthood they continue to write. Andy says,
“I feel most alive when I’m holed up in some corner writing letters.” As his
father used to tell him, letters allow you to present yourself in the best
possible way, to make a gift of yourself to another person. Does that mean
they’re inauthentic? Not necessarily, though they can be. One of the funniest
letters in the show is the one Andy receives back after he has sent Melissa a
schmaltzy, generic family Christmas letter. She hones in on inauthenticity a
mile away, and to say she calls him on it would be an understatement.
We see personal
joy and pain, triumphs and setbacks, all as the letter writers choose to
narrate them. There are unanswered letters, too. Eventually, the correspondence
picks up again after these spells of one-sidedness. But we’re left to read
between the lines when either Melissa or Andy is purposely silent on a
particular subject. The actors’ timing is excellent, both in the cases of
letters met by silence and at other times when letters fly back and forth at a
furious pace. Admirably, Welch and Orme manage to captivate the audience such
that each successive letter is eagerly anticipated. Overall, Gurney’s narrative
structure is well proportioned and aesthetically pleasing.
Simple as
they are, the set and lighting of Love
Letters deserve a few words. The minimal, modern-style table, chairs, lamp
and rug (all available for sale at Scorpio Interiors, by the way, according to
a note in the program) make the actors stand out on stage much as the lighting
on them does. Ponder for a moment the symbolic implications of Melissa and
Andy, separated geographically and corresponding through letters, nevertheless sitting
at opposite ends of the same table,
their identical glasses, it appears, filled from the same decanter… Equally clever is the change in lighting as the
play approaches its end, which likewise underscores the subject matter most
dramatically.
Alas,
where does it all end? Love has compelled the ink to flow, but eventually, the
ink ebbs and, I daresay, dries up. Does love, too? Or does it exist apart from
the letters? It would be unfair to tell – you’ll have to make the acquaintance
of Melissa and Andy yourself to find out. But consider this your letter of
introduction.
Love
Letters
February
7-17, 2013
Bunbury
Theatre Company
at The
Henry Clay Theatre
604 S.
Third St.
Louisville,
KY
(502) 585-5306
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