In the days of digitized indifference and superficial screens, it remains no mystery why the handwritten note is the unrivaled message of the heart. From an impulse to say more than we can speak, we take to the pen, and with equally desperate measure we grasp for a blank page—a finely-crafted card or the back of a receipt—the window to our soul. Then, in an outpouring of words, a declaration of devotion, the exclamation of love, an affirmation of friendship, or an expression of endearment, we mark the importance of permanence, and our words stay in time forever. Few souvenirs of human life are more eternally beautiful than the written word.
Melissa Errico affirms this sentiment, and can attest to it all so well, as she recently spends endless hours enveloped in this time-trodden tradition.
The Tony-nominated Broadway actress of “My Fair Lady” fame has been in rehearsal for the performances of “Dear Liar,” (written by Jerome Kilty and George Bernard Shaw, and directed by Charlotte Moore) which adapts the true, impassioned correspondences between the prolific playwright Shaw (David Staller) and esteemed actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell (Errico), in a limited engagement at Irish Repertory Theatre from April 25-30.
Not quite a play, Melissa Errico has been preparing herself and audiences for what she regards as a uniquely-dramatic evening: an onstage spoken recital of the infinitely intimate—the confessional sensitivity of letters.
In a conversation in anticipation of the opening performance, Errico discussed the exploration of the volatile lives of our inner emotions, untouchable connections, portraying Mrs. Patrick Campbell (Shaw’s inspiration behind the role of Eliza Doolittle), and staging this production at Irish Rep.
Kevin Phoenix: Where did the concept for “The Letter Series” come about, and what is it about the script, or overall production that most brought you to it?
Melissa Errico: I myself am a letter writer. It is a certain mood you get into, to send your emotions to another person in words. I have never done a play where I read letters only, and real words that real people wrote. I am simply fascinated. I have always written letters and loved the idea of a long relationship played out mostly in words; and also sensually, much in a kind of internal fantasy. Love expressed without the body, but a meeting of minds that sustains.
In the pandemic, I fell into studying the actress, activist, feminist, and mystic Maud Gonne who wrote some incredible letters to Yeats who loved her madly. “Poets should never marry,” she said, “The world should thank me for not marrying you.” If I’m not mistaken, I believe Maude said that she sent her body to him in his sleep, and they could make love in their dreams…It’s very interesting: the job of being a muse.