There are only a man and a woman...they write and read letters...
We bet you want to write love letters yourself after watching it.
As soon as the premiere opened in 1989 in New York, “Love Letters” came to be performed all over the world and stirred up a quiet boom. At Parco Theater, ever since it opened on August 19, 1990, nearly 500 couples of totally different ages and characters have been reading this play. Yoji Aoi, the former director and the translator of the play who was with “Love Letters” for 469 performances for 26 years, has regrettably gone to heaven in September 2017. Shuntaro Fujita has taken over Yoji’s strong thoughts to “Love Letters” and succeeds it as the director. Shuntaro Fujita, who attracts the most attention now, starts a new history of “Love Letters” while valuing the direction of Aoi. Do please keep your eye on the new century of “Love Letters”.
This two-hour drama written in the epistolary form will fill your hearts with emotion. There are only a table and two chairs on stage. An actor and an actress sit side by side and just read out the script for two hours. Who could expect this simple stage would be able to attract much attention and touch the souls of innumerable audience?
Depending on the actors and the audience, “Love Letters” renews itself. Depending on people’s generations, ages and characters, “Love Letters” becomes totally different. Because the actors do not physically move, their voices and presences speak out their genuine feelings even better and the audience share the fresh excitements.
STORY
Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Melissa Gardner are both born to wealth and position, who are typical WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, the elites in the U.S.). They are childhood friends but their personalities are completely opposite. Melissa is an artistic Bohemian type of person who hates constraint. Andy is gentle and introspective, who is good at expressing himself in writing. Andy occasionally writes Melissa about his feelings and his opinion about her. Although Melissa prefers phone calls to writing letters because speaking on the phone is easier for her, she has to write Andy because he cannot communicate as he likes on the phone.
At the time of puberty, they are sent to different boarding schools. They can only meet with each other when they return to their parents on vacation. Andy is protected by a warm traditional family. On the other hand, even though Melissa is wealthier than Andy, she feels horribly lonely and isolated having mother who repeats divorce and marriage.
When they reach adolescence, they start to become fully conscious of each other as the closest one of the opposite sex. However, somehow they do not go along smoothly and misunderstand each other. Getting impatient, Melissa starts to go out with another boy. At the night when they have an opportunity to become a couple, they find themselves not to be able to become more than friends. After graduating from colleges, they start to walk completely different paths...
