PERFORMANCE & COMEDY

Rondo Theatre, Bath (Fri 16 Sept)

THEATRE A.R. Gurney’s epistolary two-hander – which spans the separate, occasionally divergent lives of two schoolfriends over five decades or so – is a triumph of simplicity and subtlety, directed and performed in pleasingly muted tones and custom-made for the homely environs of Bath’s Rondo Theatre.

Melissa Gardner and Andrew Makepeace Ladd III take to the stage and sit at neighbouring desks; hers liberally strewn with artist's materials, his more ordered and sparse. They’re from different sides of the same track, but they share a predilection for letter writing – not to mention jealousy, insecurity, flirtatiousness and candour – and it’s through their correspondence, read aloud to the audience, that their lives and relationships unfold.

Initially, the interactions are frivolous and comical – schoolgirl/boy crushes, parental pains and tit for tat teasing – but as time wears on and careers and families emerge, the bittersweet comedy gives way to musings that hint at a darker, more adult hue – alcoholism, mental degradation, sexual abuse and divorce. Occasionally letters go unanswered, or awry, and after a few aborted meet-ups it soon dawns that – one wanton, extramarital affair aside – their shared fate lives and dies with their antiquated inky communications.

On paper, ‘Love Letters’, with little set, minimal animation and just two characters sitting and reading is a tough sell, but in fact this proves a strength: drawing focus onto a zippy, rhythmic script peppered with proverbs, Milton quotations and plenty of familiar, thinly veiled subtexts concerning what we say we want, and what we actually want. It’s the most indelible mark left by the play: the human need to mask ourselves behind an avatar, a flawless projection, which, as Melissa and Andrew discover, is so often derailed by reality.

Relying on small, verbal inflections and facial tics, actors Alison Farina and Jeremy Fowlds both excel: she full of sparky, bubblegum schoolgirl sass and latterly, hollowed-out heartache; he more rational, ambitious and not without his own little dash of mischievousness.

It mightn’t be overtly profound, but there’s much to cherish in this skilfully fashioned production which scores another bullseye for the Rondo hit factory. (Joe Spurgeon)

Copyright Joe Spurgeon 2011