Skip to main content

“THE LETTERS”MUST BE SEEN

Theatre - Let the Show Begin


Anna (Lori Hunt) keeps up her guard talking to The Director (Roberto Guajardo) in "The Letters"

The most fascinating aspect of Invisible Theatre’s production of “The Letters,” directed by Susan Claassen, is how two actors – Roberto Guajardo and Lori Hunt – can create such electrical tension on stage using only their words and their body language.
Without question, “The Letters” is the first must-see event of the new season. It is powerful the way sheer drama is powerful, drawing truth from taut conflicts between willful personalities.
Instead of threatening weaponry, massive explosives hooked up to a ticking timer, agitated suicide bombers or other such special effects, there is a desk and two chairs.
And talent…there is a lot of talent. Guajardo is The Director and we are in his office, with his title painted on the door. Hunt is simply called Anna, a subordinate. She seems to be a featureless cog in the bureaucratic Soviet machine of some equally faceless Russian city in 1931.
It doesn’t take a historian to know the communist party officials of that time kept tightening their hold on the country. Execution was an unspoken threat hovering over every conversation. Each day brought a new struggle against unknown enemies.
Yet, even in these conditions people still had to live, still had families to care for, still needed to find compelling reasons to keep going. No one was really far enough up the political ladder to feel absolutely safe.
The Director had to stay ahead of others competing for his job. Anna may have had an inferior position, but she wasn’t about to cave in.
All of this combative backstory is efficiently set up in the opening conversations between the two. Anna has been called into The Director’s office, but isn’t sure why. She looks for hidden agendas in The Director’s every word.
The Director, determined to defend himself from any threat in any direction, needs to find out everything he can from Anna without revealing any more than he must.
It is the shading of nuance as Guarjardo and Hunt tap dance around this Russian bear of uncaring menace that gives the performance its breath-squeezing grip.
Nothing quite like it has been seen on a Tucson stage in many years. In the real world, with a new revelation coming out every day that our own government has been secretly spying on all of us for years, “The Letters” is a reminder that absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Performances continue through Sept. 22, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays (additional matinee 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept, 21) at Invisible Theatre, 1400 N. First Ave.

Tickets are $28 general admission, discounts available. For details and reservations, 520-882-9721, or visit www.invisibletheatre.com  

Lowell

Popular posts from this blog

"Coming Apart" review in the Arizona Daily Star

Link to AZ Star   Tucson's Invisible Theatre starts its season with laughs By Kathleen Allen Arizona Daily Star       Tim Fuller "Love and Marriage Go Together Like" …  unless you are romance author Frances Kittridge (Susan Kovitz) and her husband comedy columnist Colin (David Johnston) who are going through a trial separation and division of worldly goods while living in the same NYC apartment! So she has planned Invisible Theatre’s season accordingly. “The first couple of shows are lighthearted in what appears to be a challenging fall for the world,” says Claassen, the company’s managing artistic director. Next week, IT opens its 2016-17 season with Fred Carmichael’s comedy, “Coming Apart.” At its heart:  “Coming Apart is “a romantic comedy of love and marriage, but it also touches on what happens when pride enters a relationship,” says Claassen, who is a member of the cast. The couple coming apart are both writers who h...

Moody noir musical 'Gunmetal Blues' depicts misfortune in surreal world

Moody noir musical 'Gunmetal Blues' depicts misfortune in surreal world December 09, 2008, 9:49 a.m. CHUCK GRAHAM Tucson Citizen "Gunmetal Blues" rises out of the darkened Invisible Theatre stage as a 1930s nightclub gangster caper that's four parts atmosphere and one part action, with a twist. Armen Dirtadian looks terrific as Sam Galahad, the well-dressed loser who's old enough to know better but has never learned to resist. Dirtadian is well-known around Tucson for his dashing roles as the broad-shouldered leading man at Gaslight Theatre, but is keeping his personality in the shadows here. He plays a private eye so down on his luck, no client is ever turned away from his tattered office. Betsy Kruse Craig (another Gaslight star) steps into the IT spotlight as that tall blonde who doesn't care how much trouble Sam gets sucked into. She also plays three other blondes with their own suspicious motives. Taking on several additional roles is Mike Padilla, wh...

2009-2010 Season Auditions at Invisible Theatre

Invisible Theatre www.invisibletheatre.com THE INVISIBLE THEATRE ANNOUNCES COMPANY AUDITIONS FOR MEN AND WOMEN IN PRODUCTIONS FOR ITS 2009-2010 SEASON The Invisible Theatre will hold auditions for their 2009-2010 Season on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 beginning at 5:00 pm. Auditions will be held at the Invisible Theatre - 1400 N. First Ave (at Drachman). Please call the Invisible Theatre (520) 882-9721 with your name and phone contact. You will then be assigned an audition time. All actors are paid. Actors must bring a recent headshot and resume and will be asked to perform a 3 minute contemporary monologue.