Review: Good Theater's LOVE LETTERS Plays Like Fine Chamber Music

A two character play in which the actors sit behind a desk and read from letters for eighty minutes poses a series of challenges to any director. What is it then that makes Brian P. Allen's new production of A.R. Gurney's 1989 drama, LOVE LETTERS, so completely mesmerizing? Not only is Gurney's writing poetic and poignant, but the production, which opened at Portland's Good Theater this past week starring Kathleen Kimball and Brian Allen (his role later assumed by Tony Reilly and then Steve Underwood), is so perfectly calibrated, so subtly interiorized that it resembles a fine chamber music performance.

Gurney's entire body of work is devoted to exploring the experiences of the privileged, well-educated WASP social milieu in which he, himself, was raised, and LOVE LETTERS is one of his best efforts in this regard. The two characters, childhood friends who maintain a many-faceted relationship for their entire lives, brim with a genuineness that can only be created by a playwright with an unerring ear for dialogue and a sense of humor and empathy for situation. Gurney's principals, the charming, sometimes neurotic, often conflicted, impulsive, seductive, feisty Melissa Gardner and the overtly conventional Andrew M. Ladd III, whose obsession with writing embodies his inner poetic nature, make perfect foils for each other, and, indeed, it is the very tension of their sixty-year relationship that adds spice to their attraction. Like Ladd, the playwright finds a salvation in words, and Gurney masterfully allows these letters - often terse snippets - to speak in progressively changing voices from childhood to late age, telling a story that is amusing and deeply moving.

Once again, Brian P. Allen's flawless ear for language and his impeccable sense of dramatic timing create the rhythmic architecture of the piece. Directing, and on this evening, acting as well, Allen succeeds like the best of chamber musicians, entering into an instinctive partnership with Kathleen Kimball. The two seamlessly glide through the shifting tones and moods of the piece with a fluid musicality. Allen's Andy Ladd is a vulnerable, shy, petulant, endearing youth who matures into the model of conventional adult success, while somehow never losing his quiet inner fire. Kimball's Melissa Gardner has a radiance and sparkling mercurialness that keeps the drama on its toes. Together they navigate the surprising turns of the characters' last "chapters" with agility and with a quiet, searing intensity.

The Good's technical production also wisely understands that less is more for the delicate equipoise of Gurney's play. The set by Craig Robinson consists of a writing desk and two leather chairs, while Iain Odlin's lighting design keeps the soft focus on the emotions of the drama.

LOVE LETTERS is an ideal choice for the Good Theater's intimate space, and their production is but another testament to Allen's - and the company's - sense of elegant proportion and sensitive, intelligent storytelling.

Photos courtesy Good Theater, Steve Underwood, photographer

LOVE LETTERS runs from January 4-February 21 at the Good Theater, 76 Congress St., Portland, ME 207-885-5883 www.goodtheater.com.