The Connection

MetroStage in Alexandria is presenting the psychological drama, “The Letters,” directed by John Vreeke, May 15 to June 14. The two-person play written by John W. Lowell, starring Susan Lynskey as Anna and Michael Russotto as The Director, takes place in an office in 1930’s Soviet Union. The Director calls Anna, a bureaucratic functionary, into his office, and a psychological cat-and-mouse game ensues. It represents a slice of paranoid life under Stalin and the effort to edit, suppress or censor the writings of prominent artists. Based on the real-life Soviet efforts to edit the sexually frank letters of composer Tchaikovsky to his male lover/interest, this is the Washington, D.C. area premiere in MetroStage’s intimate theater setting.

“If after seeing one of my plays a person sees the world a little differently, has heard an idea expressed in a way he hasn’t heard it expressed before, or has simply laughed at an unusual turn of phrase or been startled by an unusual twist of plot, I feel I have succeeded,” said Lowell. “And the greatest feeling is knowing that someone who has seen the play once, might just want to see it again.”

He said what began as an exploration of the costs, the dangers of state intrusion into private, personal matters, evolved into a broader indictment of the way corporate structures — governmental or business — contrive to manipulate the truth as a means of enforcing their agendas.

Russotto plays The Director, a 1930s-era Soviet bureaucrat with a military background in charge of a large ministry tasked with creating a kind of pure cultural history for the Soviet people. This requires the adjustment of certain documents, he says. “He believes whole-heartedly in the ministry’s mission, and will do whatever is necessary to accomplish it,” he said.

He adds: “He’s a rather street-smart man, with a type-A personality, but he has a bit of an inferiority complex, which makes him a bit of a bully, and, on occasion he can seem rather cruel. But all of his actions are performed in service to the state.”

As far as challenges, it’s an 80-minute, two-person play with a lot of words to keep in one’s head. “It’s important that these two characters be an even match for each other,” he said. “If The Director is too overwhelming, or Anna is too meek, the play becomes predictable, and not very exciting to watch. Hopefully we’ve sidestepped that pitfall in our production.”

He hopes the audience will see parallels with what is happening in the U.S. today. “As our own government invades our lives a little bit more every day, as privacy and personal liberties continue to disappear, as we're told what to think and how to feel by an ever more homogenous media, the play provides a window into what happens with official over-reach,” Russotto said.

MetroStage in Alexandria is presenting “The Letters” from May 15 to June 14. Show times are Wednesdays to Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 7 p.m.; and Saturday matinees at 3 p.m. MetroStage is located at 1201 N. Royal Street, Alexandria. Tickets are $50-$55. Group Rates are available for groups of 10 or more. Call the Box Office at 703-548-9044 or email info@metrostage.org. Visit www.MetroStage.org.