BWW Reviews: HATE MAIL - Poison Pens

AR Gurney's Love Letters has become a staple of community and regional theaters, its simplicity and minimalism (performed by two actors reading their scripts from music stands) appealing to producers and actors alike. 

As a counterpoint to this poignant love story told through a lifetime of letter-writing comes Bill Corbett and Kira Obolensky's Hate Mail, offering a decidedly twisted take on the epistolatory play. Exactly as the title would indicate, this variation on Gurney's theme follows the relationship between two antagonists rather than lovers. Naturally, they go from one to the other and back again several times--after all, love and hate are divided by the thinnest of lines. (For the record, the opposite of both is indifference.)

No, this comedy doesn't have the depth or wit of Gurney's, but it doesn't need really need either. It is, essentially, a one-joke play. It's a funny joke, true, but it wears thin after a while, and there isn't much else to take its place. Instead of characters we have caricatures--which is fine for a broad comedy like this, but usually better suited to a shorter sketch, where less character development is needed. 

Fortunately, the current production of the show, running at the 45th Street Theater through tonight, April 2, benefits from D.H. Johnson and Dana Brooke's fine comic timing and Richard Pepenella's evenhanded direction to fill in the spaces where the script is at its weakest. An arched eyebrow from Ms. Brooke or a clueless smile from MR. Johnson instantly adds layers to Corbett and Obolensky's comic archetypes, and makes their bizarre journey that much more enjoyable. In a departure from Gurney's template, Stephanie Tucci provides a surprisingly realistic set for the two characters that lets us see them both at their writing desks. In some ways, it's gilding the lily, but there are quite a few moments when the extra visuals pay off handsomely. Bernie Dove's lighting nicely delineates the two worlds of the writers, keeping them isolated and connected at the same time.

While Hate Mail may not be the riotous laugh-fest it aims to be, it is certainly grin-inducing and quite charming.