Love Letters by A. R.
Gurney
at Chapel off Chapel until September 16, 2000
Reviewer: Kate
Herbert
It is a joy to see
actors without the trappings of lighting, special effects, costumes or even
stage action, to clutter or interfere with their craft. To be specific, it is a
joy when the actors are as skilful as Maggie Millar and Alan Hopgood and the
dialogue is as well-crafted as that of US playwright, A. R. Gurney.
Love Letters was performed by various Australian theatrical
couples during the last few years. It is a powerful, funny and moving rehearsed
reading of a series of very personal letters between a man and a woman as they
grow from adolescence and early attraction to late middle age.
There is something passionate, intimate and secretive about
a letter-writing relationship. There is no eye contact so the words must be
vivid and the reader's first response is unseen, his or her perception is
unpredictable and the interpretation is often complex.
Even the shyest writer can express strong emotion in a
letter. Love can be declared, promises made - and just as easily broken in the
delay between correspondence.
In this case, the gaps between letters spread out into
years. Sometimes, after the two married, they amounted only to xeroxed
Christmas greetings and birthday cards.
The pair are opposites from an early age. Although both come
from middle class families, Melissa (Millar ) is from substantial wealth and
Andy (Hopgood) from moderate comfort. Andy is straight, loved by his
conservative parents and shipped off to boys schools for his own good, to row
and study Racine.
Melissa is shipped off for different reasons. Her mother is
a drunk and a serial divorcee. Melissa is a tragedy waiting to happen. She
describes herself in later life when the two finally consummate their love, as
a "boozed-out, cynical, lascivious old broad". Andy, in contrast, is
a stalwart citizen, a Republican senator with a stable and dull marriage and
children.
Millar and Hopgood sit in upright chairs, script in hand,
but the lives and loves of these two adorable characters are palpable. We hear
their joy and pain, we hope for a reunion and a cure for Melissa's alcoholism,
we pray they will not marry their silly spouses and we romanticise the
possibilities of the life they never lived together.
We all have those dreams of past loves to repent.
By Kate Herbert
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