Lyric Stage Company of Boston Presents "Dear Elizabeth" by Sarah Ruhl - A Letter Perfect Production

A friend of mine was in town for the weekend, primarily for the Head of the Charles Regatta.  This friend is a West Point graduate, veteran of the Iraqi Freedom campaign, and recipient of the Bronze Star. He is also a leader in the fight to help fellow veterans in dealing with issues of PTSD.  On Friday, my friend asked me, "What are you doing on Sunday afternoon?"  I responded, "I am reviewing a play called 'Dear Elizabeth'. Want to join me?" I was not sure how he would respond.  "I have not been to a play in a long while; let's do it."  So, off we went to Clarendon Street for the Press Opening of Sarah Ruhl's play about the friendship and correspondence between Pulitzer Prize winning poets Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop.

At the end of the play, my friend was unashamedly wiping tears from his eyes.  I asked him, "What are you feeling?"  His reply was immediate. "I just experienced two of the most significant hours in my life.  I will need some time to process what I just saw and experienced."

What was it that moved my battle-hardened friend?  Simply stated, it was the overwhelming and irresistible power of art to cut to the heart of the human condition.  In her play entitled "Dear Elizabeth - A Play In Letters From Elizabeth Bishop To Robert Lowell And Back Again," local playwright Sarah Ruhl has extracted from the more than 400 letters shared between these two poets the nectar of their troubled and complex relationship.  The author has woven together excerpts from the letters interspersed with fragments of poems written by both Bishop and Lowell to create a dramatic narrative that highlights many of the nuances and complexities of a loving friendship between two deeply flawed human beings.  This play is no static reading of dead letters, but a living and breathing dramatizing of two lives - sometimes colliding and often just missing one another.  The two poets shared a deep respect, friendship and love for one another that could perhaps have resulted in marriage if they had succeeded in learning one another's emotional forwarding addresses.

This production of the play is helped enormously by the brilliantly versatile set designed by Shelley Barish, the lighting by Karen Perlow, the costumes of Emily Woods Hogue, the sound by Andrew Duncan Will and the artful direction by A. Nora Long.  The production also includes some wonderfully inventive projections that allow the audience to travel with Lowell and Bishop to some of their favorite places.

Ed Hoopman as Robert Lowell
Laura Latreille as Elizabeth Bishop
Lyric Stage Company
of Boston
""Dear Elizabeth"
by
Sarah Ruhl

Ms. Long's steady hand in blocking the movements of the two actors upon the stage highlights the extremes of their occasional emotional intimacy and their frequent distance from one another - sometimes continents apart.  Ed Hoopman evokes the spirit of Robert Lowell, who in his lifetime battled bipolar disorder and seemed to be a frequent commuter between the campuses of BU and Maclean Hospital.  Laura Latreille channels the spirit of Elizabeth Bishop whose own grappling with alcohol led to frequent bouts of melancholy, loneliness and writer's block.  The relationship between Lowell and Bishop, and their correspondence serves as a screen onto which are projected characters who do not appear on stage yet who play a significant roles in the two poet's lives - two of Lowell's three wives, Bishop's longtime Brazilian companion are chief among these ghostly characters.  Mr. Hoopman and Ms. Lateille are each letter perfect in using the text of the letters and poems of their respective characters as launching pads from which spring surprising flights of emotion and thoughtful reflection.

Ed Hoopman as Robert Lowell
Laura Latreille as Elizabeth Bishop
Lyric Stage Company 
of Boston
""Dear Elizabeth"
by
Sarah Ruhl

This is a play that deserves to be seen and shared.  I cannot guarantee that you will be as deeply moved as were my friend and I, but I can guarantee that if you find your way to the Lyric Stage Company of Boston between now and the final performance on November 9, you will not be disappointed.

Lyric Stage Website

Enjoy!

Al