Theater Review / Dear Jack, Dear Louise

By Emily Weekley

Dear Jack, Dear Louise opened the forty-third season at the Red Barn Theater on Tuesday night to a crowded house and did not disappoint. With all you’d expect of a timeless love story, this two-man play brings to the stage the conflicts of both romance and 1940s wartime America and takes the audience with it on this nostalgic journey. This small cast and this intimate space pack a big punch in this production. 

Playwright Ken Ludwig wrote this award-winning play in honor of and loosely based on his parents’ courtship, intending to illustrate their two different types of heroism. It is set in New York City, Europe, and Medford, Oregon as the characters, Louise Rabiner, played by Jessica Miano Kruel, and Jack Ludwig, played by Cody Borah, fall for one another without ever setting eyes on one another. The two get lost in each other’s letters, getting to know each other in a unique and genuine way as they encounter numerous obstacles in their plans to meet in person.

The play requires a great deal from Miano Kruel and Borah, who share a stage set in two locations, Louise’s room in New York and Jack’s desk on the base in Oregon where he is stationed as a medic. Because the play is based in a written correspondence, both actors have to develop their characters through the text of these letters, and both characters come quite alive, alluring the audience into an investment into the narrative that spans over a year as Jack waits for an inevitable call overseas and Louise stays committed to the auditions that get her closer to her dreams of being on Broadway. Through all of this, their relationship develops and is complicated by other relationships. It is impressive how these characters convince the audience of their intimacy to one another over so many others who they’ve actually met in person.

The most striking elements of the play are those that director Joy Hawkins has managed to incorporate to show how two different lives can be joined despite the way each character leads an unpredictable life in multiple locations. The set emphasizes the close relationship these characters have despite their physical distance from one another and work with the costume design to transport the audience to another time where the narrative is relatable despite being foreign to our modern approaches to romance. As Louise makes her way around the country from performance to performance and stage to stage, and Jack is moved clear into another continent to the frontlines of World War II, the audience can clearly follow and feel the pathways of each of these characters as well as their commitment to one another despite the unpredictability and impermanence of the intersection of these situations. 

You can catch Dear Jack, Dear Louise playing now now until January 14th at the Red Barn Theater at 319 Duval Street (in back). Get your tickets at redbarntheatre.com or by calling the box office, open from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. on weekdays, at 305-296-9911.

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