Mia Farrow can really rock a chair.
Co-starring in a play where she must read lines from pages on a desk in front of her, and where the core concept of the show is that the actors do not leave their seats and do not have any physical interactions, Farrow has a handy solution to the sedentary solitude. She points. She gestures. She strokes her gorgeous flowing hair. She touches her forehead when exasperated. She acts freely and expressively without seeming trapped.
Sitting next to her is Brian Dennehy, whose appearances at New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre over the years have all involved large pieces of furniture: the editor’s desk in “The Front Page” in 1982, the hotel countertop in “Hughie” in 2008 and the table full of reel-to-reel tapes in “Krapp’s Last Tape” in 2011. He settles in comfortably and underplays expertly, gauging his performance against the more-animated Farrow.
Both actors wear glasses. Both are neatly dressed. Sitting at a desk in the middle of a platform at the center of the Long Wharf main stage, they perform without distractions (though Dennehy did seem a bit testy when a cell phone went off on opening night). Both read fluidly and let their characters develop naturally as the textbound performance goes on.
Farrow is Melissa Gardner, the free-spirited artist who comes from a broken home, and Dennehy is Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, the dutiful son who joins the military and enters politics. The characters meet as children, and we see their exchanges change from guarded friendship to shared secrets, commentary on each other’s careers and marriages and, ultimately, romance.
When the national tour of A.R. Gurney’s “Love Letters” played The Bushnell in Hartford just two months ago, the stars were Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw — neither of whom were in the Broadway production directed by Gregory Mosher of which the tour was an extension.
Now the Long Wharf Theatre, where “Love Letters” happened to have had its world premiere in 1988, has put together a new production featuring Farrow and Dennehy, two actors who did appear in Mosher’s New York production, only directed this time by Long Wharf Artistic Director Gordon Edelstein.
Those who are unaware of the concept of nuance might ask, “What’s to direct?” The two cast members in “Love Letters” sit at a table. They read aloud from papers that are meant to represent a sheath of correspondence saved from a lifetime friendship between two well-born Westchester County types. The script was cleverly concocted by Gurney so that it could be performed with minimal rehearsal, and so that actors of almost any age or temperament could perform it. As Dennehy, and especially Farrow, prove here, “Love Letters” may seem restricting but it allows a lot of room for interpretation.
Neatly cast, warmly staged and beautifully punctuated by Farrow’s hands, this “Love Letters” seems superior in every respect to the O’Neal/MacGraw tour. Even the desk is nicer.
“LOVE LETTERS” is performed at the Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, through April 10: Tuesday at 7 p.m., Wednesday 2 and 7 p.m., Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2. There’s an added Sunday evening show at 7 p.m., April 3. Tickets are $30.50 to $84.50. Information: longwharf.org.
