ZippySaid Productions/Love Letters, written by A.R. Gurney, directed by David Agro, Purple Sandcastle Theatre, closes Feb. 16. Tickets right here.
A Pulitzer Prize finalist, the 1988 play Love Letters holds a particular place in American literature. It’s all the time being carried out someplace on the planet, and in lots of languages.
Fortunately, ZippySaid Productions has introduced the play again to Toronto, directed by David Agro, and produced by Deborah Shaw, who additionally occur to star within the present. Agro did the set and the lighting. He additionally got here up with the idea for this system, which is within the type of a letter, to not point out doing publicity as properly. Agro is the corporate’s one-man band.
Background
The performs of the prolific Gurney deal with a sure class of individuals, particularly the previous cash WASPs of the north-east American seaboard and the Higher East Aspect of New York. He writes about what he is aware of, having been a part of that milieu himself — boarding faculties, Ivy League universities, and second houses in Newport and Palm Seashore.
What’s particular about Love Letters is that it’s learn, not memorized. The 2 actors sit aspect by aspect, studying from their scripts, by no means one another. The magic of the play is that over the course of time, an intimate and totally fashioned portrait of the 2 characters emerges from the studying of the letters.
It’s good writing on the a part of Gurney.
This manufacturing has a really fairly set with two desks, the girl’s being white and the person’s darkish wooden. Behind them is a collage of letters on two strings connected to a big mannequin of a cathedral. Gurney within the script mandates that they will every have water, however their containers are very totally different and swimsuit the characters.
The Letters and the Characters
The primary letter begins in 1937 when the 2 protagonists are 8 years previous. Collectively, the letters cowl a span of fifty years and are unhappy, humorous, severe and indignant by flip.
The 2 characters are Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (Agro) and Melissa Gardner (Shaw). Melissa’s household is richer than Andy’s, a truth which they each acknowledge. Their relationship may be very difficult. They’re clearly meant for one another however marry the flawed folks.
Melissa’s dad and mom divorce, and her mom marries once more to a hateful stepfather. Her personal father turns into distant and has a second household. For his half, Andy comes from a secure house. As one wag quipped: “Melissa could also be richer, however Andy has higher dad and mom”.
In his performs, Gurney likes to painting stereotypes, but his ability as a author lies in giving them humanity. His characters dwell and breathe and develop far past their stereotypical beginnings.
By the top of the play, we all know Andy and Melissa as actual folks. We even have a agency understanding of the folks of their lives.
The Performances
Andy by no means goes past the conservative values of his household and society. He attends the anticipated faculties, joins a prestigious New York regulation agency, marries the best girl, and goes into politics, changing into a United States senator.
Agro offers a positive efficiency — stiff, dogmatic, and restrained, but crammed with compassion and heat. He takes enjoyment of following the trail of his forefathers but is crammed with insecurities that he tries to cover. In Agro’s delicate palms, we all know that Andy is an efficient and respectable man.
The creative Melissa is the insurgent who fights in opposition to the restrictive mores of her day. She pushes limits, and on account of in search of new and dangerous experiences, she turns into a misplaced soul. Her marriage collapses and she or he loses custody of her kids. Her life is adrift, and her temper swings grow to be ever extra apparent.
In the beginning, Shaw was over-acting and her character as each a toddler and teenager appeared compelled, however because the play progressed to maturity, Shaw discovered her footing and gave us a heartbreaking Melissa, making an attempt to overcome her very unhealthy selections, and failing at each flip.
Love Letters can be a play about silences, and Gurney has embedded them throughout the script. They’re as essential because the textual content. It’s inside these silences, attributable to phrases in a letter, that each Agro and Shaw excel. Their expressive faces inform us precisely what they’re feeling and considering.
The start units the tone, and it’s nice timing. They stroll in, sit down of their chairs, and placed on their glasses at precisely the identical time. Their entrance after intermission is extra vibrant with Shaw virtually swinging onto the set, shouting “Firenze” as a result of she is in Florence. Agro’s Andy appears to be extra animated as properly.
The 2 actors additionally give us a robust rendering of the poignant ending to the play. Gurney would have been comfortable simply how transferring it was.
Clearly this forged understands the irony of the title.
Trivia
And right here’s some trivia for you. Through the years, essentially the most well-known actors of stage and display have carried out within the play, often as a profit to boost cash for charity. The actors usually have a connection. They had been in a film collectively, or a tv sequence, or a Broadway play, and sometimes the actors are a married couple. The checklist of the glitterati who’ve taken half in Love Letters is infinite.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, notably on the position of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson College for the Arts.