Remy Bumppo: Dear Elizabeth Review
Christopher Sheard and Leah Karpel in DEAR ELIZABETH
Remy Bumppo Presents Dear Elizabeth Review - A Glimpse Into A Lifelong Friendship
TLDR: Dear Elizabeth gives us a glimpse into the 30-year friendship between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell drawn from their correspondence and poems. A two person show mainly focusing on their characters’ personal life developments and interpersonal relationship with a minimal stage. It explores how their relationship grows and changes and makes us think about human connection.
Remy Bumppo Jumps Into Relationship Waters
An almost surrealist stage stands before us. Two desks draw our focus, one downstage left and one a little further upstage to the right. Both are surrounded by books, pages, coffee cups, and pens. As we expand outwards, the set around them becomes more abstract. The proscenium is framed with light cloth painted in light blue fading down to darker blue towards the bottom. A few large rocks sit in various places. And the floorboards press together forming peaks like waves creating the illusion our writers sit in the middle of the sea.
Leah Karpel as Elizabeth addresses Robert formally, hoping her letter is not an intrusion and her request for dinner is not too forward. She stands stiffly in front of her desk, hands clenched at her sides, and jacket buttoned all the way up. She sounds uncertain as she takes this first step towards initiating a friendship.
Christopher Sheard as Robert looks over from his desk as she speaks. He has a small smile on his face and writes something down on his notepad in response and then brings his gaze back up to her. And so begins the portrayal of their years of correspondence and friendship.
Replying Like A Letter, Back and Forth
The play itself feels like a letter where the two take turns speaking and replying to each other in monologues as their letters. Dates appear sporadically, grounding us in a time period and lets us know when time passes. We get hints of people, places, and events happening in their lives. Robert mentions a visit to the sanitorium in passing as he muses about the current state of his life. Elizabeth fitfully wonders about her poetry and if it’s good enough while mentions needing to sell her house in Brazil.
Then outside of their words, our two actors take the liberty to show us what’s happening behind the scenes. As Robert talks about a woman guest at Yaddo, we see Karpel reach for the whiskey bottle more than once, leaving us to interpret what’s going on in her mind while “reading” his letter. Elizabeth writes about how she’s worried for his health and Sheard lays sprawled on the floor. The two play and respond to each other showing us how they interpret what may have been going through each of their minds when they read or wrote a letter.
Connection That Runs Deep
They speak freely at first, wishing each other well and asking when the other will be in town or around for a visit. They sign off their letters with growing affection, “respectfully,” “affectionately,” “love,” throughout the years. But then as something changes and life grows more complicated, things become stunted. Robert turns towards her and writes imploringly, searching for an emotional response. She replies loudly speaking over him, in hopes of avoiding the question. But we stick with them through the highs and lows and feel their connection and emotional intimacy build.
Leah Karpel and Christopher Sheard in DEAR ELIZABETH
The After Party Thoughts
It takes a level of skill to curate a selection of Bishop and Lowell’s letters (they wrote over 400 to each other!) that would give us audience members enough information to form a timeline of events and also understand key feelings from these two author’s lives without it being too dense. So the play and words themselves by Sarah Ruhl was the first thing I really liked about this show. It was the perfect amount of information without it being overly prescriptive.
Then the second thing that drew me in was the two actors creating this connection beyond the words from the letters. To me, it felt like both Karpel and Sheard took every opportunity to unpack the written words and put emotion and actions behind them. Even though I knew nothing about these authors going into the show, I was invested the whole time and reflected on how relationships grow and change over the years.
Dear Elizabeth lifts the curtain and attempts to fill in the blanks behind what is unsaid in Bishop and Lowell’s letters. For those who want an action packed play that’s more plot driven, this wouldn’t be the best fit for you. However, if you love character driven works and ones about interpersonal drama, Dear Elizabeth would be a good fit for you.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
When
Now through November 17, 2024
Where
Theater Wit
1229 W Belmont Ave.
Chicago, IL 60657
Tickets
$15+
Tickets can be purchased through the Remy Bumppo website
Photos
Nomee Photography
CAST
Elizabeth: Leah Karpel
Robert: Christopher Sheard
Elizabeth U/S: Morgan Burkey
Robert U/S: JT Nagle
CREATIVE
Written by: Sarah Ruhl
Directed by: Christina Casano
Stage Manager: Jean E. Compton
Assistant Director: Eduardo Xavier
Assistant Stage Manager: Sophie Goddard
Dramaturg: Devon Hayakawa
Scenic Designer: Catalina Niño
Costume Designer: Kotryna Hilko
Lightning Designer: Max Grano De Oro
Projections Designer: John Boeshe
Original Music and Sound Designer: Christopher Kriz
Props Designer: Isa Noe
Movement and Intimacy Designer: Micah Figueroa
Dialect Designer: Eva Breneman
Assistant Lightning Designer/Head Electrician: Nick Chamernik
Assistant Costume Designer: Janelle Smith
Artistic Director: Marti Lyons
Production Managers: Addoris Davis, Johnnie Schleyer
Artistic Producer: Tanya Palmer
Technical Director: Nick Peebles
Casting Director: Jasmine B. Gunter
Casting Consultant: Katie Galetti