An unusual delight of a love story that crosses not just space, but time, in the UK premiere of Ken Ludwig’s epistolary romance
"I’ll be seeing you / In all the old familiar places," goes the Sammy Fain and Irving Kahal Broadway musical song, which plays out during Ken Ludwig’s new two-hander. But how can that sentiment apply to a love story in which the boy and girl have never actually met? Dear Jack, Dear Louise is at once charming and eccentric, romantic and gripping, and entirely original in the staging it demands.
Spanning World War II, after America enters, Ludwig tells the story of a young doctor posted to the frontline to minister to the injured and an aspiring showgirl. They don’t get to meet, yet fall in love through the letters they write to each other. How? The machinations of two sets of Jewish parents are the clue. Jack, the young doctor, and Louise, a gorgeous, talented chorine, are persuaded to become pen pals by their parents and the resulting correspondence takes on a wonderfully tension-building ‘will they, won’t they?’ trajectory.
At the play’s London premiere at the Arcola Theatre, the staging is a triumph that draws in the audience from the getgo. Designer Robert Innes Hopkins gives each protagonist one half of the stage to represent their ‘world’. Jack has a utilitarian army desk, Louise a showy quill pen with which she makes dramatic flourishes in the air. While sharing thoughts, opinions and updates on their lives, the pair moves around the stage, including the centre, though they never make physical contact. Eva Feiler’s vibrant and glamorous Louise and Preston Nyman’s at first shy and nervous Jack crisscross, reading letters, which we see represented by pieces of paper dangling above the action in a web of netting.
Jack’s side is sparse and business-like, while Louise’s resembles a wardrobe of glorious sexy stage costumes (and equally glam period frocks and flared trousers). Also evocative of the period is the music (sound designer Jamie Lu), all of which are original recordings that only prove to enhance the atmosphere.
As Jack learns about Louise's aspirations and auditions, the excitement for her success builds – especially when news comes of a USA tour on which she is to embark and during which they hope to meet. Then she learns of his posting to Europe, which might thwart those plans – and then silence. Could it signify disaster?
Dear Jack, Dear Louise is thrilling love story that hits just the right balance of romance and realism.
By Judi Herman
Dear Jack, Dear Louise runs until Saturday 2 May. 7.30pm, 3pm (Sat only). From £12. Arcola Theatre, London, E8 3DL. arcolatheatre.com
Listen to our interview with Ken Ludwig on the JR OutLoud podcast.