A carefully selected collection of letters between two of America’s well-known poets opens the fall theater season at Milwaukee Chamber Theater. Staged in the intimate, 99-seat Studio Theater, Dear Elizabeth gives audiences an up-close look at the lives of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop.
When writing the play, author Sarah Ruhl had the daunting task of sifting through more than 400 letters between the two that spanned their 30-year friendship. As a result, she brings out many facets of the poets’ personalities. The letters are read in chronological order, and they represent a steadying force throughout these writers’ brief, tumultuous lives.
Dear Elizabeth premiered at Yale Repertory Theater in 2012; it also had a production at Seattle Repertory Theater earlier this year. Milwaukee audiences are among the first in the country to glimpse this latest work of celebrated young playwright Sarah Ruhl. Among many other honors, Ruhl received the MacArthur “genius” Fellowship. She is on the Yale School of Drama’s faculty.
Lowell and Bishop met at a dinner party in 1947, when he was 30 and she was 36. They remained fast friends until Lowell’s death from a heart attack in 1997. The two poets couldn’t have been more different, both in terms of their writings and their personalities. Bishop was intensely private. She had a restless spirit that kept her wandering all over the globe, perhaps as a result of her rootless childhood. She was basically orphaned when her father died when Elizabeth was an infant; her mother was committed to an insane asylum a few years later. Bishop spent the rest of her childhood living with one set of grandparents, then the other. Lowell, on the other hand, was born to a privileged Boston family. He was married three times and had two children. He contemplated asking Bishop to marry him but couldn’t bring himself to propose. It wouldn’t have done much good, anyway. Bishop, a lesbian, had a long-lasting relationship with a Brazilian architect until her partner’s sudden death. Both Bishop and Lowell shared a passion for their work. At one point, Lowell writes, “nothing is so solid to me as writing.” Bishop’s best-known poem is “One Art,” which refers to the “art” of losing. By this time Bishop is well-versed in a series of deep personal losses (ranging from her parents, to her partner, and even to a beloved toucan she imported to New York from Brazil.) The short poem is read during the play, and actress Carrie Hitchcock (who plays Bishop) creates a stunningly beautiful moment when reading it. Although it seems both had the money to travel freely, Bishop and Lowell met only sporadically through their lives. It was the letters that sustained them through all their triumphs (both won Pulitzer prizes) and depressing moments. The play, delicately directed by Marie Kohler, allows the natural chemistry between the two actors (married in real life) to blossom. Both Norman Moses (as Lowell) and Hitchcock (as Bishop) are well-known and much-beloved figures in Milwaukee’s theater circles. The actors manage to keep the play somewhat upbeat, despite these poets’ sad, short lives. Both Bishop and Lowell were alcoholics, and Lowell had several stays in a mental hospital throughout his life. Their letters speak of solitude and loneliness as much as anything. The letters seemed to bolster their spirits and were a source of much-needed professional encouragement. Lowell’s letters seem to suggest an unrequited love for Bishop that lasted throughout his life, despite her sexual preference for women. After each of their rare meetings, Lowell writes Bishop a typically apologetic letter for “stepping over the lines.” The set offers some added elements to keep the audience’s interest. Specifically, a hidden pool of water is used by director Marie Kohler to admirable dramatic effect. The set, essentially one large home office with Bishop’s desk on one side and Lowell’s on the other, is surrounded by a dark pool of water. A few clever lighting and stage tricks keep the audience unaware that the water exists until the point when Bishop hops right in. The water—perhaps indicating the ebb and flow of the poets’ relationship—is used to represent the beaches in Maine, Key West (where Bishop had a house) and Rio de Janeiro (where Bishop lived with her architect). In any case, it brings an added dimension to what could have been a dry, dull recitation of these letters. Although some audience members may enter a performance of Dear Elizabeth with little or no knowledge of the poets involved, they will learn much throughout the evening. They may leave with a touch of sadness, too. Not just for the characters, but also for the golden era of correspondence.
