EVOLUTION

When Andrew accepts an invitation to Melissa Gardner’s birthday party, and Melissa writes a thank-you note a romantic friendship and correspondence destined to last for almost half a century is born. Both from affluent families -- the friends communicate with each other through angst-ridden boarding school experiences, European adventures, failed marriages, and the ups and downs of career. Over the course of their lives, Andy and Melissa’s relationship goes through many changes. Despite the painful differences which will ultimately tear them apart, they remain each other’s most trusted confidante, and are “true lovers” on paper, if not on the earth. A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters is a tender, tragi-comic, and nuanced examination of the shared nostalgia, missed opportunities, and deep closeness of two lifelong, complicated friends.