Customer Reviews

Love Letters and Two Other Plays: The Golden Age, What I Did Last Summer (Plume Drama)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In Gurney's introduction to the play, he states that 'Love Letters' was created during an exercise to learn how to type. Once again, as is so prevalent in history, genius is created accidently. This small, simply-constructed, 55 page play is one of the most captivating pieces of literature I have ever read. After seing a production (on television) I sought out a copy and promptly read the entire play at once. Any reader desperately wants to see Andy and Melissa together and Gurney, the author, does a tremendous job of detailing their lives in such a short space. The play also reveals, so succintly, the heartbreak of mental illness and alcoholism. Melissa's ability to paint and create, her greatest gift, is borne from her pain. Gurney's ability to delve into the minds of such complex characters is outstanding. This play is truly a masterpiece of interpersonal relationships and love for all. There is hope in the hopeless. A must read for anyone with a heart and soul.

Love Letters has a very simple concept: Two people reading letters they wrote to each other on separate parts of the stage. They never look at each other. But within these letters is so much humor, love, and truth that the play will carry you away with delight. I read this play as I was browsing through a bookstore. I just wanted to read the first couple of pages since I'd heard so much about it. After page three, I didn't want to put it down. Now I'm buying it for a friend. Don't think this play is a sappy collection of gushy girl talk or even romance-novel fodder. If you have ever been in love, you WILL recognize parts of yourself in this. It always stays true to its well-drawn characters, which is what makes the end so heartbreakingly wonderful.

"Love Letters" is a play consisting of a lifetime of correspondence between a man and a woman. It starts when they are barely old enough to write (2nd grade) and ends when one of them dies. In between, there is a lifetime of love, understanding, misunderstanding, longing, pain, and understatement. I saw the play produced in San Francisco in 1989 with Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows. In 1997, I saw it with the original Long Wharf Theatre cast of John Rubinstein and Joanna Gleason. It was excellent with both casts. Last night (04-12-99), ABC premiered a TV movie version directed by Stanley Donen with Steven Weber and Laura Linney. He got the essence of the play with their reading the letters to each other, and flashbacks to chosen moments in time. It had me crying all over again. I remember seeing it for the first time ten years ago with my male best friend. At the intermission, we both looked at each other and said, "Wow." It could have been our life story.

I am involved in a production of this play right now, and I have to say that when I read it before I auditioned, i cried, and the same was true in both call backs and the read through. This is a moving piece that proves that two people do not have to be married to be truly in love and live for each other. This play helped me inspect my own life and treat those around me with more thought as to the rest of our lives together. An excellent read, for the layman and the professional...

And it worked. Now we are as close as could be and I feel this play was the center of our relationship. It teaches important lessons and really breaks your heart...in a good way.

Gurney has his ear to something absolutely vital, something terribly real, something important. It's real, but it's not invigorating. It's corn. Gurney is American corn star playwright. He's been around now for some forty years. In fact, he's got a new play opening in New York this year. He can be satiric, witty, biting, and insightful. I'm thinking of "Dining Room," but there are others. Everyone should have a favorite Gurney play. He is absolutely brilliant on WASP cultural transitions. He understands well what has been lost and why. In this volume, his title play "Love Letters" made the rounds. Gurney is somewhat of a gimmick playwright. Here movie actors come in for the night, read the script without memorization, get a little publicity, and then hit the road. The letters are not bad. Like "Same Time Next Year," there is a long term love relationship, in this from childhood to old age. It is touching, like "On Golden Pond." In our current theatre climate, this is just the sort of show producers like to squeeze in between revivals of big musicals. It's a stunt, but the blue-hair crowd seems to lap it up. Gurney has enormous talent, wasted on this sort of thing, but then again everyone's got to make a living.

This is the only play that I have seen in my Forensics (speech and debate) career that has brought tears to my eyes. But it has to be done properly or it will bomb.