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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. The Letters Also see Susan's reviews of NSFW, The Price and Zombie: The American
The inspiration for John W. Lowell's play is the effort in Russia—still going on today in some quarters—to praise the genius of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky's music while burying the truth of his homosexuality. The fact that the composer left behind many inconveniently frank letters is at the center of the interplay between Anna (Lynskey), an editor in the Soviet government in 1930, and the unnamed Director of her division (Russotto). Anna is part of a team editing the composer's letters to portray him as a perfect hero of the Soviet state and eliminate anything unseemly from his biography. When questioned by the Director, she agrees that she finds the unexpurgated letters "uncommonly explicit" and even pornographic; she has no problem with toning them down for public consumption. The Director claims, however, that one of Anna's co-workers secretly copied the letters in their original form and could embarrass the state by releasing them. He is determined to find out what she knows. The tension and claustrophobia build slowly. The Director starts out bluff and cheerful, self-effacing (he's a military man placed in charge of intellectuals) and overbearing as he keeps Anna off balance with his barbed questions and insinuating jokes. The key issue is how long Anna can withstand the Director's assault and when she will realize that the truth has nothing to do with the situation. Lynskey and Russotto demonstrate a fearless rapport as their characters intimidate and attack each other, well assisted by Vreeke's clear-eyed direction. MetroStage
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