FAIR CITY stalwarts Bryan Murray and Una Crawford O’Brien (alias Bob and Renee ) will shortly be appearing at the Town Hall in a production of A R Gurney’s Pulitzer-winning play Love Letters.
Gurney's play chronicles the relationship between Andy and Melissa solely through their correspondence. The play tells the story of Andrew Makepeace Ladd and Melissa Gardner, whose poignantly funny friendship and ill-fated romance takes them from second grade through adolescence, maturity, and into middle age.
Their words are both hysterical and very moving, as the play unfolds the audience comes to know both of them intimately – from their strict WASP upbringing, through later life political aspirations, love affairs, military service, and artistic ambitions.
A smash hit both off and on Broadway, Love Letters captures Andy and Melissa with a precision of detail and depth of feeling only Gurney can command.
Ahead of the play’s Galway run Bryan Murray took some time out to talk about the show and his own career. Murray has long been one of our best known actors, creating iconic roles in such hit TV shows as Strumpet City, The Irish RM, Bread, Brookside and, latterly, Fair City. For all his many TV appearances though, theatre has maintained a strong appeal for him and he regularly returns to the stage. “I got into the business initially to become an actor not a star and that meant working in theatre,” he declares. “Working in theatre gives me a huge sense of satisfaction and that’s something I’ve managed to rediscover in the past five to 10 years as I’ve been doing more stage work.”
How would Murray reflect on the changes in television drama that he’s witnessed over the course of his long career? “It’s a different thing today, harder in ways,” he observes. “In the early days we had much more time. In Strumpet City we had from January to September to do eight episodes, whereas with Fair City we do make two hours of TV drama every week. Much more time and money was invested in a production like Strumpet City, today people’s insatiable appetite for TV drama creates different demands. I would regard them as different genres really, not necessarily better or worse, but we don’t have the luxury of time allowed as there was when I started.”
Murray goes on to talk about Love Letters “Andy, the character I play, has a straitlaced background and grows up to be a senator. Ever since kindergarden he has known Melissa, and their relationship develops and blossoms over the years, even though she’s his polar opposite in many ways. They don’t actually end up together as a couple but there’s a genuine sense in the play that maybe they should have. It’s a very moving play about love, and loss, and there’s a lot of joy and laughter there as well.”
The play has the simplest possible setting, with Murray and Crawford O’Brien sitting on stage, reading out Andy and Melissa’s succession of letters. Sounds a doddle perhaps as acting jobs go but Murray demurs; “Sitting down creates its own challenge because you have to create pictures in the audience’s mind wihtout the aid of movement or of sets. We only have our imagination to help us in conjuring up these characters.The production does feature period music by the likes of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra which helps set the mood though. We’ve been doing the show together for the past two years and it’s been going down well so far wherever we’ve performed it.”
Murray also reveals that Bob and Renee, currently absent from Carrigstown, will be re-appearing in Fair City next month. In the meantime Galway audiences can make the most of Murray and Crawford O’Brien in Love Letters; a funny, compelling, sad, poignant, and will prove to be an exhilarating and touching night of theatre that will stay in the memory long after the performance ends.
Love Letters will show at the Town Hall Theatre from Monday August 31 to Wednesday, September 2 at 8pm.
