Review: Reading Between the Lines in DEAR ELIZABETH

By Sara Ruhl; directed by A. Nora Long; scenic design, Shelley Barish; costume design, Emily Woods Hogue; lighting design, Karen Perlow; sound design, Andrew Duncan Will; production stage manager, Natalie A. Lynch

Cast:

Laura Latreille as Elizabeth Bishop and Ed Hoopman as Robert Lowell

Performances and Tickets:

Now through November 9, The Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, Mass.; tickets start at $25 ($10 off for seniors, $10 student rush ½ hour before curtain) and are available by calling the Box Office at 617-585-5678 or online at www.lyricstage.com.

Prolific playwright Sara Ruhl (Eurydice, The Clean House, In the Next Room, Dead Man's Cell Phone, Orlando, Stage Kiss and The Oldest Boy currently premiering Off-Broadway at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center) has turned to the words of 20th Century poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell to fashion her quietly moving play DEAR ELIZABETH running through November 9 at Boston's Lyric Stage. Smartly excerpting passages from more than 400 letters exchanged by the pair over the course of a tumultuous 30-year friendship, Ruhl has plumbed the depths of emotion written between the lines to create a play as aching and tender as any original tragic love story.

The quirky and self-effacing Bishop (a wonderful Laura Latreille) and the cynical and sarcastic Lowell (an erudite Ed Hoopman) share the literary limelight as two of America's most lauded Pulitzer Prize-winning poets of their time. They bond, however, over not just their mutual admiration but also the palpable sense that each is a fish out of water when it comes to dealing with the mainstream. After meeting at a party in New York City in 1947, they strike up a correspondence that will eventually become each other's lifeline. Their letters buoy them through failed marriages, mental illnesses, deaths, and the ups and downs of public careers. Though they seldom actually spend much time together, their friendship is deeper and more intimate than any other relationship they have.

As the malcontent poets, both Latreille and Hoopman seem to disappear into their characters. They take on unique speech patterns and physical characteristics that suggest the wounded psyches barely hidden beneath their literary snobbishness. Latreille, especially, makes every flicker and inflection a window into her tortured soul. Even her offbeat humor is tempered by the fear of dashed hopes and insecurity bred from finding her way in the world alone.

Since every word of dialog in DEAR ELIZABETH comes from Bishop and Lowell's actual letters, Latreille and Hoopman must find ways to "write and read" dynamically. They succeed beautifully in making us feel that they are having actual conversations with each other. At times they position themselves on opposite sides of the room suggesting that they are corresponding from far flung locations. At other times they step into the scene being discussed, either reliving moments they shared together or putting into action the feelings their letters are eliciting in each other. Whatever the situation, Latreille and Hoopman talk and listen like two old lovers reconnecting over cocktails. We can just imagine their hands gently touching each other's as they reminisce and smile over good times.

The convention of reading or reciting letters to each other on stage could become deadly, however, if it weren't for the inventive ways in which director A. Nora Long and her crack design team enhance the actors' interactions. Taking their cues from instructions that Ruhl has included in her script, Long and company provide a visual feast of transporting scene changes and special effects. Typewritten words appear on the floor, walls and beams at key moments to heighten the impact of the letters being written or read. A trap door and then a simple opened valise take Bishop and Lowell to the beloved Maine beach where they find safe haven. A simple papier maché orb hung from discreet wires carries Bishop to another world when she needs to find new inspiration. These and many more inspired touches transform the duo's written words into three dimensions. What isn't said thus springs to life as if from each poet's imagination.

DEAR ELIZABETH is a gentle piece of theater that packs a surprising emotional wallop. It's a testament to the power of words, both written and left unspoken. How lucky that Bishop and Lowell corresponded at a time when sentiments weren't limited to 140 characters. How lucky, too, that no one hit "delete" when their letters were discovered.

PHOTOS BY MARK S. HOWARD: Ed Hoopman as Robert Lowell and Laura Latreille as Elizabeth Bishop; Ed Hoopman and Laura Latreille; Ed Hoopman and Laura Latreille

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