“This ‘Love Letters’ is a tender and compassionate production that touches the heart nearly forty years later.”

When a theatre production explores the lost art of written communication through letters and cards, it’s time to reflect on the loss of this missing act of gentility.

zippy said productions stages A.R. Gurney’s ‘Love Letters’, the 1988 two-hander Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama at Toronto’s Red Sandcastle Theatre.

The story centers on Melissa Gardner (Deborah Shaw) and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III (David Agro), who meet in Grade 2 at Melissa’s birthday party. Melissa comes from a wealthy background. Andrew’s family may not share the same financial prosperity; nonetheless, his world highlights the importance of family and service to others. Over the next forty years, the two maintain their connections through letters, cards, and notes. Sometimes, we may laugh. Sometimes, we may draw a tear in the eye.

A challenge of staging ‘Love Letters' is that it may appear deceptively simple because the actors do not memorize lines. They read from the script.

Gurney's script is not an easy task to stage. For one, there are some references that were removed that might be considered a tad inappropriate today. That choice does not detract from this opening night production.

‘Love Letters’ depends on the actors’ voices to take the audience on this forty-year journey. Gurney is precise in his directions. The actors are to listen attentively to one another. They must not look at each other while the letters are read aloud until the end when Melissa gazes at Andy as he reads the final letter. The actors must not mug their facial expressions while the letters are read aloud.

The other challenge behind zippysaid’s production?

David Agro is also the director. Can a director who is also an actor in the show give the needed attention to be the watchful eye?

He did.

Agro gives the production the attention it needs and deserves. He cares about Andrew and Melissa. He and Deborah Shaw deliver charming performances that capture the emotional nuances in the characters’ lives and their varied highs and lows.

The set is simple, and the actors' clothing is distinct. Agro and Shaw sit at two different tables, accompanied by props that are representative of the characters. Agro wears a charcoal gray suit and matching tie. His table is conservative and orderly-looking. At one point, Andrew reflects on how he feels like a genuine lover when he uses his fountain pen to convey his words and thoughts on paper to Melissa and others. Melissa’s table is painted brightly compared to Andrew’s and looks busier. Shaw’s Melissa wears flashy and bold colours.

Behind the performers, fragments of calendar pages, letters, notes, cards, and paper are pinned to the back curtain. Additionally, there's a stunning model that I thought might be the Taj Mahal (or a church?). I couldn’t tell. All this set dressing in the background remains ambiguous. Perhaps it underscores that Melissa is a wanderer in Act 1. Unlike Andrew, she can’t stay in one place for long. The paper on the back curtain becomes distracting. Why? The program notes advise us to listen to the actors’ reading voices and focus intently on the letters. At times, my eyes kept drifting to the paper behind Agro and Shaw.

Agro’s Andrew is a dutiful young man who believes in always doing the right thing, whether it’s pleasing his parents in his youth or his wife Jane and their three boys. Shaw’s Melissa is vibrant and spirited. She’s bawdy and often sexually playful. Shaw’s Melissa speaks rapidly in the first act, effectively contrasting with Andrew’s desire to remain firmly in control. However, in Shaw’s choice to speak quickly, there were moments when I didn’t catch everything she said. Sometimes, there is a joke (like at Emma Willard’s Academy) that I missed the punchline. It’s a funny one that got lost. It's a minor quibble, but still, Melissa has some humorous lines, and I dont want to see them overlooked.

This terrific production of ‘Love Letters’ offers an opportunity for reflection. The play invites us to consider how we continue to connect authentically with one another through the written word.

And when it’s beautifully spoken and performed in front of an audience, the play still touches the heart forty years later.

Go and see it.

Running time: approximately 90 minutes with one intermission.

‘Love Letters’ runs until February 16 at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen Street East, Toronto. For tickets: www.zippysaidproductions.com

zippysaidproductions presents
‘Love Letters’ by A. R. Gurney
Directed by David Agro
Produced by Deborah Shaw
Stage Manager: Oli Allen
Production and PR concepts: David Agro
Production Assistant: Donna Dee

Performers: David Agro and Deborah Shaw