Love Letters Premieres at Skokie Music Theatre Foundation

I have never been one for plays and theater until about a year ago, since then I have been experiencing culture as my friends would say. I was unaware that there are so many community theaters in the Chicagoland area. Recently I saw a play written by A. R. Gurney called Love Letters being shown at the Skokie Theatre Music Foundation in Skokie, IL.

This was my first experience at Skokie Theatre Music Foundation and the space itself is simply beautiful. I have been in theater before but STMF has a very comfortable house and a very smartly designed stage with great acoustics, something I find missing from most theaters I have been in. However not all was perfect as seating was a problem for me since I am a tall individual. I recommend taller people sit in the back row of stadium seating or in the last row of floor seating if at all possible. Other than height problems the theater is fairly small and people should have little difficulty seeing the stage from any seat in the house.

Sadly I was mildly confused at the beginning of the show but this is far from a failing on the shows part and more an issue with me not understanding the basic idea. Love Letters is a telling of two peoples lives using just the letters they have written to each other over the course of their lives. I was confused at first because the letters are read in chronological order, and they start off as kids in the letters, but the actors are adults. I chalk this confusion up to going into the play blind, not reading up on it before hand at all.

In some ways Love Letters is a reading rather than a play as I expected, as the set is simple (just two chairs and a lamp) but the actors do give the right emotion and feeling to the letters, which becomes more and more important as the relationship between the characters grows and changes. However don't expect much in the way of the two actors moving around the stage if at all. The starring role in the play is Melissa Gardner portrayed by Jan Ellen Graves, who does a great job in the role. Surprisingly, State Representaive Lou Lang played the role of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and did an admirable job with the material. However at the Janurary 24th showing Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen will be acting in this role instead.

It is very hard to discuss this show without going into explicit detail or spoiling aspects of the story, hence the short length of this review. My friend who viewed the show with me said that they could see where the storyline was going early on and how it would end. I was kept guessing up until the end however and the impact on the audience was palpable, despite a seemingly misplaced instrumental light-jazz piece as the house emptied.

My experience seeing Love Letters was an hour well spent, and I encourage people to see the next showing on Janurary 24, 2010. Tickets were mildly expensive in my opinion for an hour long show, but this was mitigated when I learned that Skokie Theatre Music Foundation is a charity in and of itself working to promote the arts in the Skokie area (as opposed to most community theaters which are simply non-profits). In the end the show was well worth the price of admission, see it with someone you care about.