Love Letters

Written by AR Gurney in 1988, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Love Letters appears deceptively simple. By calling for a pair of actors to read from scripts on an otherwise bare stage, it could sound like one notch up from a radio play.

The play has become a classic, and was presented by one of Adelaide’s newer companies, IpSkip Productions. IpSkip are now broadening the number and scope of plays as their following grows, and this was a courageous start to their season. This play, performed at The Parks Theatre, a somewhat underestimated and very audience friendly theatre, had one evening performance only. COVID seating was well managed to support the intimacy of the play. Set in America, it was delivered using an Australian accent.

The audience was appreciative and engaged, seeming to enjoy the irony, witty dialogue and double entendres carefully and strategically woven through the script. The pace reflected the fact that the style, whilst an exchange of letters, aims to be heard like a seamless conversation ultimately between two lovers and dear old friends. 

The set was simple and somewhat stark: a table, two chairs and a pair of skilled, experienced and well respected Adelaide community theatre performers. It is an oft-performed piece that relies on actors capable of tracing the poignant thread of longing and regret that binds half a century of correspondence between those characters whose relationship is thwarted by hesitation. The two tables and chairs underlined both the togetherness and isolation of these characters. The simplicity was apt, but I was somewhat distracted by a piano that protruded and pushed ‘theatre curtain legs’ unnecessarily into the performance area that otherwise allowed me to focus on the performers.

Directed by Nathan Quadrio, Rose Vallen as Melissa and Lindsay Dunn as Andrew, portray childhood friends who start writing to each other as an experiment. Spanning decades, a series of letters (and cards) written throughout their lives, explore love, adulthood, addiction and betrayal. The play was a good fit for the pair, who imbued their performances not only with passion, palpable spark and developing emotional depth, but also with an aura of a winsome nostalgic couple. Guests with me commented that they would have liked a simple program that introduced them to the story and the cast, because initially, they floundered a little with the story and its intent.

Care had obviously been taken with subtle costuming that gave some clues to the character’s back-story whilst also allowing the fifty-year span in the telling. Melissa, repeatedly flaunts and reminds Andrew whilst they are children, of her substantially better financial position. Whilst avoiding a ‘spoiler’, the lives of each character undergoes trauma, tragedy, upheaval and change, so the choice of all visual details is important in this play.

Lighting was simple and uncomplicated, and whilst that could have been varied to create mood or intersections in the story, there was no distraction of lighting or sound from the focus on the performers.

The flow was good, but the balance of delivery between the two actors was, at times inconsistent. Vallen ‘drove’ the performance and relished the humour and passion, her face and controlled gestures reflecting the demands of mood, dialogue and different ages as the story progressed, whilst Dunn’s performance was more measured and gently delivered. It is a complex male role, of often-unrequited love, where the actor is challenged by the constant self-battle of loving Melissa whilst finding her almost impossible to communicate with honestly for fear of ridicule, rejection and of being ignored. Indeed, both characters comment that they struggle to reveal “the real you and the real me.”

It is a genuine story of star-crossed lovers and this current production reminded me that simple, well prepared theatre using a beautifully written script, and experienced actors, is a crowd pleaser.

Jude Hines

Disclaimer: The author of this review will be directing a play for IpSkip later in 2021