BWW Reviews: THE LETTERS at MetroStage

Two characters take the stage. One has the upper hand, constantly insulting and intimidating the other, until...BAM! A new piece of information is revealed and the tables have turned.

If this set-up sounds familiar to you, you are not alone. While quite a few plays fit this description, the one we're talking about here is The Letters at Alexandria's MetroStage. While all audience members can appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears that go into any production, it's hard to recommend a play like The Letters that is uninspiring and comes with a fairly expensive ticket price.

The problems with The Letters start with its predictable script. In a two-hander with no scene-changes and very little distraction, a play's success rides on the inventiveness and depth of its script. Unfortunately, The Letters plays on a tired, hackneyed power dynamic (blustering male boss, traditionally quiet female subordinate) in a conflict that begins as a promise of a promotion and quickly escalates into a game of cat and mouse. That the unnamed Director and Anna clash in Soviet Russia over the decision whether or not to censor Tchaikovsky's gay love letters matters little, which is unfortunate because that censorship sounds like a fascinating topic for a play. As it is the letters themselves only get a cursory description and condemnation for their lewdness from the Director, prompting an uneasy laugh from the audience. From then on the two embattled characters play out their parts entirely free of censorship debate-one of Anna's coworkers is accused of the treasonous act of preserving some of the letters intact, it is revealed that this coworker is Anna's lover, and threats and insinuations are made. I won't spoil anymore, although honestly it wouldn't much matter if I did; you'll be aware of the ending at least 30 minutes before it hits.

Michael Russotto and Susan Lynskey give solid performances, although the lack of nuance in the script leaves them little to work with. Russotto makes the director a controlling, bombastic and occasionally comedic character. Blocking meant to intimate the Director's power over Anna, such as when he stands over her as she curls up in his office chair, is simple and effective. Lynskey's Anna starts demure and becomes feistier as the play progresses, but only becomes fiery enough to get the audience fully in her corner as the conclusion of the play nears. While this is a reasonable character choice (Anna is written as cagey in the beginning of the play) it makes it hard for the audience to truly rally behind their heroine until the plot has nearly unraveled. This is perhaps just another fault of the script.

Unfortunately the set seems to work against the actors instead of with them. Confusingly, the Director's sparse office setup only takes up two thirds of the stage, leaving a large swath of blank space that is not used by blocking or furniture and is covered only in an odd red paint treatment. This seems like a shame, because the MetroStage has a wonderful playing area and more space might have benefitted the sometimes stilted physical interaction between the Director and Anna. A lovely film noir silhouette in the office door and a window-filtered effect are as complex as the lighting gets, and the Tchaikovsky soundtrack is pleasant but not dramatic enough to add real drama to the underperforming script.

Audience members looking for a tightly wound, complex thriller will find something satisfactory, but not revelatory in The Letters.

The Letters runs at MetroStage through June 14th. You can find tickets and more information here.