Love Letters and Two Other Plays: The Golden Age, What I Did Last Summer (Plume Drama)

by A.R. Gurney

Book Overview

FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA In such critically acclaimed plays as The Dining Room and The Cocktail Hour , A. R. Gurney has wittily captured the manners of upper-middle-class WASP... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452265010
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Plume
• Length: 209 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.2"

Customer Reviews

We used this play as a way to discover eachother.

And it worked. Now we are as close as could be and I feel this play was the center of our relationship. It teaches important lessons and really breaks your heart...in a good way.

As an actress in this show...

I am involved in a production of this play right now, and I have to say that when I read it before I auditioned, i cried, and the same was true in both call backs and the read through. This is a moving piece that proves that two people do not have to be married to be truly in love and live for each other. This play helped me inspect my own life and treat those around me with more thought as to the rest of our lives together. An excellent read, for the layman and the professional...

If done properly....wow!

This is the only play that I have seen in my Forensics (speech and debate) career that has brought tears to my eyes. But it has to be done properly or it will bomb.

Don't read if you want to spend time on other pursuits.

In Gurney's introduction to the play, he states that 'Love Letters' was created during an exercise to learn how to type. Once again, as is so prevalent in history, genius is created accidently. This small, simply-constructed, 55 page play is one of the most captivating pieces of literature I have ever read. After seing a production (on television) I sought out a copy and promptly read the entire play at once. Any reader desperately wants to see Andy and Melissa together and Gurney, the author, does a tremendous job of detailing their lives in such a short space. The play also reveals, so succintly, the heartbreak of mental illness and alcoholism. Melissa's ability to paint and create, her greatest gift, is borne from her pain. Gurney's ability to delve into the minds of such complex characters is outstanding. This play is truly a masterpiece of interpersonal relationships and love for all. There is hope in the hopeless. A must read for anyone with a heart and soul.

Friends for Life

"Love Letters" is a play consisting of a lifetime of correspondence between a man and a woman. It starts when they are barely old enough to write (2nd grade) and ends when one of them dies. In between, there is a lifetime of love, understanding, misunderstanding, longing, pain, and understatement. I saw the play produced in San Francisco in 1989 with Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows. In 1997, I saw it with the original Long Wharf Theatre cast of John Rubinstein and Joanna Gleason. It was excellent with both casts. Last night (04-12-99), ABC premiered a TV movie version directed by Stanley Donen with Steven Weber and Laura Linney. He got the essence of the play with their reading the letters to each other, and flashbacks to chosen moments in time. It had me crying all over again. I remember seeing it for the first time ten years ago with my male best friend. At the intermission, we both looked at each other and said, "Wow." It could have been our life story.