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| Suzanne Bouchard and Steven Barker Turner in Dear Elizabeth. Photo by Andry Laurence. |
Dear Elizabeth by Sarah Ruhl at the Seattle Repertory Theater is a small
and intimate re-creation of 30 years in the lives of the great American poets
Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell composed entirely from their letters to each
other and from their poems. There is not a word in the play not written by
either Bishop or Lowell, which is why the playwright refers to herself in
program notes as the “arranger” rather than as the writer. What she did was to
artfully put together words from the poets and put them into the able hands of
director Allison Narver and actors Suzanne Bouchard and Stephen Barker Turner.
“There
is an exquisite grace to Dear Elizabeth,” stated Acting Artistic
Director Braden Abraham. “Sarah Ruhl began her writing career as a poet, so she
was perfectly suited to arrange these letters into a beautiful drama. And
Allison’s keen visual sensibility will be a wonderful complement to that
language.”
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| Suzanne Bouchard and Stephen Barker Turner in Seattle Repertory Theatre’s Dear Elizabeth (2015). Photo: Alan Alabastro. |
Bishop
and Lowell began writing each other in 1947 and continued until Lowell’s death
in 1977. During this time they traveled the world and were in and out of
institutions. Bishop suffered from asthma, was an alcoholic and depressed, and
the great love of her life committed suicide; Lowell had bipolar disorder. They
were not lovers in the traditional sense, but they had a great and abiding
love. They were critic, cheerleader and confidant to each other.
Simple
wordless acting between the recitation of poems and letters string together the
narratives of their lives. The manner in which they convey story elements not
made clear by the words is almost impossible to describe, but in many instances
involve actions so simple as when, while writing to one another, they each take
off their shoes and roll up their pants, and then in the next scene they come
together and act out wading in cold water to illustrate an incident that took
place when Lowell visited Bishop in Maine not long after they first met. Bishop
later wrote about it: “Swimming, or rather standing, numb to the waist in the freezing
cold water, but continuing to talk. If I were to think of any Saint in his
connection then it is St. Sebastian—he stood in a rocky basin of the freezing
water, sloshing it over his handsome youthful body and I could almost see the
arrows sticking out of him.”
Many
elements come together to make for a satisfying evening of theater, elements
such as Lowell and Bishop’s poetry, letters that were often hilarious and
sometimes heartbreaking, tidbits into the thoughts and actions of other great
writers whom they knew (such as Dylan Thomas who called A Streetcar Named Desire the “fuck truck”) and Bouchard and
Turner’s acting. And there were a few elements that I found distracting, mostly
symbolic acts such as when Lowell climbs up on the back wall and rips the moon
out of the sky, and later when Bishop also climbs up and reaches for something
(I know not what). If there were references within the script to explain these
actions I missed them.
I
did not think the bare-bones set worked well. There were a couple of desks and
chairs on rollers, a few props, and a backdrop of what looked like studs in an
incomplete wall. Practically, the back wall provided for a screen for projected
titles (dates, times, etc.) and for a place where Bishop could put her many
whiskey bottles. But it did not make for an attractive stage. The Leo K, which
is the smaller of the Rep’s two theaters, is running three shows on a two-show
budget this year, and that may account to the minimalist set.
Dear Elizabeth is anything but traditional theater. There is little action
and no dramatic story arc, but it is intelligent, witty and heartfelt. Under
Narver’s direction, Bouchard and Turner make us feel we have been granted a
look into the most private and unguarded thoughts and feelings of two of our
nation’s great poets.
Feb. 6–March 8, 2015.
Tickets at 206-443-2222 or online at http://www.seattlerep.org
The Seattle Repertory Theater, 155 Mercer St., Seattle, through Feb. 8
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