Sarah Ruhl and Les Waters return to Berkeley Rep with Dear Elizabeth, which stars Mary Beth Fisher (left) and Tom Nelis as esteemed poets and lifelong friends Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
DEAR ELIZABETH BY Sarah Ruhl and directed by Les Waters. Berkeley Rep’s, Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org. Through July 7, 2013
DEAR ELIZABETH is not about Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Many of the opening night audience were totally unaware of poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell even though they were prominent writers from the late 30s to the early 70s. When director Les Waters was first asked to collaborate with Sarah Ruhl who was working on a stage version of the complete correspondence between Bishop and Lowell, published in 2008 as the 900-plus “Words in Air.” He confesses that he too was unaware of their work or fame but that did not deter him.
Ruhl and Waters are close friends and their collaborative works have graced the Berkeley Rep’s stages including the superb Eurydice and In the Next Room (or the Vibrator Play. They have again come up with a winner but it lacks the total qualities displayed in their previous outings. This may be due to the limitations place on Ruhl by the trustees of the poets’ estates. She could only use the words written in the letters without embellishment. The words at times soar and apparently create a true picture of two troubled souls that intellectually united even when many miles separated them. It is Les Waters’ staging and direction that keeps the evening mostly alive.
This show is a co-production with the Yale theatre group where it received its world premiere in 2012 and Mary Beth Fisher reprises her role as Elizabeth Bishop. The talented Tom Nellis is the second half of this two-hander and creates a multifaceted Robert Lowell including bouts of manic depression (now known as bi-polar disorder), flights of fancy and touching unrequited love. Fisher is completely comfortable in her role and displays a perfect touch of reticence between her underplayed bouts of alcoholism.
They sit side by side on a desk center stage on Annie Smarts beautiful yet utilitarian set that must become multiple locations such as Yaddo an artist’s colony in Saratoga Springs, New York, Brazil, Maine, Italy, the Library of Congress and many more. Projections are used to delineate time and place.The actors leave the desk to make forays to left or right stage that become their individual domains and they only physically embrace once. This gesture may be imaginary gesture since Bishop was enamored with Lota de Macedo Soares her Brazilian partner.
To spice things up, clever Les Waters actually adds a real waterfall that floods the stage, not once but twice to emphasize Bishop’s poem:
“There are too many waterfalls here; the crowded streams
hurry too rapidly down to the seas,
and the pressure of so many clouds on the mountaintops
makes them spill over the sides in soft slow-motion,
Turning to waterfalls under our very eyes.
(Excerpt from “Questions of Travel”)
In summary: A charming evening worth a visit. Running time under two hours including intermission.
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
