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Dear Jack, Dear Louise ~ Arena Stage

Jordan Wright
December 6, 2019 

Ken Ludwig, the prolific Olivier Award-winning and Tony Award-winning playwright, gifts us with an exquisite pentimento-inspired play drawing on his parents’ long-distance romance during the height of World War II.  This charming, world premiere two-hander is constructed in such a way that the actors act out their correspondence.  It’s a clever device that allows their letters to come to life.  Credit Director Jackie Maxwell for sorting through the mechanics of bringing it to the stage.  Separated on either side of the stage and speaking directly to the audience, is Jack, a soldier writing from his military posts and Louise, an aspiring actress residing in the Curtain Call Boarding House in New York City.

(L to R) Jake Epstein (Jack Ludwig) and Amelia Pedlow (Louise Rabiner) in Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise running November 21 through December 29, 2019 at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

The two young letter-writers couldn’t be more dissimilar.  Small town-bred Jack, a doctor, is shy, studious and committed to the care of his fellow soldiers, while Brooklyn-born Louise is high-strung, sardonic and witty.  They make the perfect case for opposites attracting.

While Jack awaits leave, the ultimate goal is for the two to meet in person, their letters become a lifeline to each others’ emotional well-being.  Louise gaily writes about her nerve-wracking auditions and later, about his parents’ efforts to meet her.  (They’re behind the whole thing.)  One of the funniest scenes is when she regales him with the story of how 45 members of his extended family meet her at the train station and later, how she fell out a window (or was pushed) by one of his undermining aunts.  All this after he has begged her not to meet his crazy family and sent letters to his battalion of aunts threatening to out their family secrets if they’re not on their best behavior.

Jake Epstein (Jack Ludwig) in Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

Their correspondence focuses on the period from 1942 through 1945 including Jack’s time on the most dangerous battlefields in Europe and as Louise agonizes that she will never meet her heart’s desire.  It’s a sweet romance full of the poignancy, promise, fears, and gallows’ humor universally expressed in letters during wartime and these two actors synch up so symbiotically you can’t help but believe their transformative tale.  Ludwig said of his play, “I hope it’s a story about how this country rises to the occasion.” And, indeed it is.

Amelia Pedlow (Louise Rabiner) in Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

Costumes by Linda Cho and hairstyles by Ellyn Miller are period-perfect, though Beowolf Boritt’s backdrop is more reminiscent of amoebas suspended in a test tube than a setting for a wartime dramedy.

If you like “A Wonderful Life”, and who doesn’t, this one’s for you.

(L to R) Amelia Pedlow (Louise Rabiner), Ken Ludwig (Playwright) and Jake Epstein (Jack Ludwig) in Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise. Photo by C. Stanley Photography.

Starring Jake Epstein (originator of the role of Gerry Goffin in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and Peter Parker/Spiderman in Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark) and Amelia Pedlow (lately featured in Doubt, Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Folger, and The Metromaniacs and A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare Theatre Company).

Through December 29th at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St., SE, Washington, DC 20024.  For tickets and information call 202 488-3300 or visit www.ArenaStage.org.

 

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