By Val O’Bryan
SimonFest has been providing the arts community with quality productions for twenty years, and Love Letters is the perfect production to celebrate their platinum anniversary. If you have never been to SimonFest at the Heritage Center Theatre in Cedar City, now is a great time. They are currently showing Almost Maine, Man of La Mancha, Evita, andthe entertaining production I recently attended. Love Letters, a finalist for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, written by A.R. Gurney, is delightful and poignant.
Love Letters is a unique production because it involves only two actors who sit at desks and read their lines rather than having everything memorized. Andy and Melissa deliver their lines through letters to one another. The exchange of letters starts when the characters are in grade school and continues into adulthood. The actors never speak directly to each other. There are no costume changes, no set changes, and no blocking to speak of.
Historically, when the play was on Broadway, the cast was meant to change every week. Over the years, many famous actors have assumed the roles of Andy and Melissa, including Charlton Heston, Elizabeth Taylor, James Earl Jones, Carol Burnett, Mel Gibson, Sissy Spacek, Liza Minnelli, Sigourney Weaver, and so many more. Love Letters became an important production during the pandemic because it could be performed with only two actors, carefully distanced from each other and the audience, which helped theaters recover from shutdowns. Sally Field and Bryan Cranston even performed an online version in 2020 to benefit the Actors Fund.
What might seem like a rather simplistic play (No memorized lines, Minimal set), Love Letters gives directors and actors a chance to demonstrate the strength of their storytelling ability. I was not disappointed. Although the playbill lists Clarence Gilyard as Andy and Janice Brooks as Melissa, I was notified before the performance that Richard Bugg would be stepping in as Andy. Before seeing the show, I read the director Douglas Hill’s note about how A.R. Gurney was considered “the quintessential White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (WASP) playwright” and how Gurney’s plays typically center on WASP characters. Director Hill explained that this production would feature an African-American cast and identified historic Black communities that “could have brought forward an Andrew and a Melissa.” With Bugg stepping in as Andy, the racial dynamic changed.
I have to take a moment to compliment Brooks and Bugg. Brooks is able to make Melissa come alive for the audience. She shows great emotional range, not only with her voice but also with her facial expressions. The audience couldn’t help but feel her feelings. When Melissa iss happy, we were laughing, when Melissa is devastated, we were crushed. Not only did Brooks demonstrate the strength of her vocal acting, she also masterfully uses pauses and silence as a tool to evoke meaning. Through the pauses, the audience could understand shifts in the relationship, time elapsing, or increased distance between the characters (geographical or emotional). As if being the founder and executive producer wasn’t enough to keep Bugg busy, he is also directing Almost, Maine and playing the lead, Don Quixote in Man of la Mancha this season. It was a real treat to see him step in for Andy.
With a very minimalized set, every detail counts. Props master Nora Asplund put a lot of thought into her design. Upon entering the theater, all the audience can see are two desks on stage, spread apart from one another. One desk has stacks of books, a picture frame (of who? We never find out), and a globe. The other desk has a single book, a ceramic swan, a basket of flowers, and a free standing coat rack just behind the desk. The desks serve to represent the characters. Andy starts out as a student, excelling in school, who continues into law school and eventually becomes a politician. His desk shows his academic nature and has traditionally proper objects that one might expect on the desk of an accomplished law professional. It is a traditionally respectful desk for a character who is striving to be traditionally respectful. Melissa’s desk, in contrast, does not have stacks of books. She doesn’t love school or writing. As an artist, she is continually drawing and painting. However, society, her parents, and even Andy to an extent, do not value her work or her desire to develop her art skills. Her desk illustrates this by leaving off any sign that she would be an artist. There are no pencil cups or paint brushes waiting in water. An art easel behind her desk would have made more sense than a coat rack for someone who was actually supported in her artistic endeavors. Alas, Melissa has to fight for herself and for her art her whole life. I imagine the swan and flowers are meant to serve as a reminder of what Melissa is supposed to be by societal standards: beautiful, pure, and graceful. Silent. Instead, she has a dynamic personality, full of flaws and authentic beauty that Brooks portrays excellently. Although these prop details might seem insignificant, there is profound meaning packed into each object.
In addition to their vocal performance, the actors also give a few additional clues into their characters and how they feel about each other. Although there is not much movement, the manner in which the characters enter and leave the stage are significant. Both actors enter from the side where Andy’s desk is. Andy sits first and as Melissa walks behind him, she holds a loving glance with him until he breaks it to attend to his desk. The final moments and movements are also significant and illustrative of characterization but I don’t want to spoil anything. Bugg and Brooks masterfully execute characterization through these few subtle interactions.
Check out SimonFest this season and enjoy the excellent production value and supreme acting. Love Letters will make you laugh and sigh and think and maybe even reminisce.
SimonFest Theatre Company presents Love Letters, Written by A. R. Gurney.
Heritage Center Theatre, 105 N 100 E, Cedar City, UT 84720
Jul 16, 22, 30, 2022 2:00 PM, July 10, 14, 20, 29, 2022 7:00 PM
Contact: 435-267-0194
Tickets: $18-30
SimonFest Theatre Company Facebook Page
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