Love Letters chronicles a half-century of letters between Melissa Gardner and her childhood friend turned love interest, Andrew Makepeace Ladd III, childhood friends whose correspondence begins with birthday party thank-you notes and summer camp postcards. Romantically attached, they continue to exchange letters through angst-ridden boarding school experiences, troubled college years, European adventures, the ups and downs of careers and failed marriages.
Over the course of their lives, Andy and Melissa’s relationship goes through many changes, as the couple goes through periods of estrangement, and the intense, clandestine affair which will accelerate Melissa’s emotional breakdown. Despite the painful differences which will ultimately tear them apart, they remain each other’s most trusted confidante throughout their lives, from childhood to death.
A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters is a tender, tragi-comic, and nuanced examination of the shared nostalgia, missed opportunities, and deep closeness of two lifelong, complicated friends.
Love Letters was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The original Broadway production opened at the Edison Theatre October 31, 1989 and has become a favorite theatre staple.