Review: LETTERS FROM MAX at Seattle Public Theater

Dear Readers, I love a good play that can make me feel something.  Not just tell me a story but immerse me in the subject.  One such play is Sarah Ruhl’s “Letters From Max” currently playing at Seattle Public Theater.  And while it certainly got to me, the play itself has some accessibility issues I need to discuss.

It’s a simple yet sad premise as we meet Sarah (Marianna de Fazio), the embodiment of the playwright herself, who takes on a student, Max (Alexander Kilian), in her writing class.  The young man is smart, well spoken, a dedicated poet, oh and he’s battling cancer.  Yes, this is a play about the big C as we see the mentorship between these two develop into a friendship over the years through poetry, conversations, and, of course, letters. 

From the start you can imagine how the play will end.  And you can imagine that it will push any and all buttons the audience might have about cancer.  And you would be right.  Plus, the two characters are both writers, one writing a character of herself, so often times the play gets overly wordy and, dare I say, pretentious.  If the character of Sarah made a comment like “I was his teacher, but he taught me” one more time I thought I would scream.  Plus, as these are two highly educated people conversing, sometimes they dropped names or allusions that might go right over the head of your average audience member.  They did for me.  And that led to the inaccessibility I spoke of. 

Honestly, the play, based on Ruhl’s book of the same name, feels very self-indulgent and like someone else’s therapy on stage.  However, and this is a big however, Ruhl is a gifted writer and, a few of those pitfalls I mentioned aside, she manages to convey a very touching relationship between the two.  This can be attributed to Ruhl, as well as a very real, and honest portrayal by Seattle Public Theater, director Amy Poisson, and the cast and crew.  Poisson keeps the pace tight and the emotions real and never maudlin.  As Sarah, de Fazio manages a portrayal of an established woman intent on sharing her world with a young man whom she knows won’t be in it for long.  And Kilian could play the character as a victim but mostly portrays an affable young man who’s stuck in a bad situation and chooses to move past it into life.  And those performances make for an engaging evening. 

Another huge reason the play manages to engage is the subject.  Sadly, we all probably know someone in our life who is or was affected by this insidious disease, if you’re not afflicted yourself.  It’s an all too prevalent part of our society.  And beyond the piece itself, the theater has taken pains to engage the audience with a small yet meaningful gesture before the show and at intermission.  A gesture that remains a bright light (literally) on stage throughout. 

It's all those things combined that kept this cynic from rolling his eyes too often.  There were those few cringe moments, but they were outweighed by the situation and sincerity.  And so, with my three-letter rating system, I give Seattle Public Theater’s production of “Letters From Max” a “yeah, it totally made me tear up” YAY-.  Not the most groundbreaking work on the subject but a touching look at love and humanity in the face of tragedy. 

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