Mike Schramm

Watching "Letters/X 2" is like perusing Missed Connections on Craigslist. There's a lot of anonymous fighting and berating going on, plenty of sexual innuendo and misconduct, and it's not always easy to see who's doing what to whom. But like the anonymous dating message board, GroundUp Theater's latest production, its second annual cabaret based on the texts of breakup letters, is mighty fascinating.

"We were all going through breakups at the time, and one of us got this really obscene letter," says GroundUp's Molly Neylan about the genesis of the show a year ago. Neylan and fellow co-director Sabrina Lloyd sent out the call for interesting "I love you, but" letters, and family, friends, and coworkers answered enthusiastically: "People were more than willing to share," confides Neylan, adding that some of the contributors later became audience members. They then passed the letters on to playwright Anthony Roberts. "They collected these amazing letters, and we just sort of strung them together," says Roberts, who created monologues, songs, and even a puppet play out of Dear John missives and angry emails.

The result is a cross-section of love at its greatest worsts. One monologue tries to hurry along a messy divorce, while the next expresses regret for breaking up with such a great lay. If you've ever told someone you never want to hear from them again, this might be your night--it begins with an actor walking on stage, delivering what sounds like an official notice of relationship discontinuation that dissuades "any false hopes for any reconciliation" before pausing, and then suddenly screaming out into the audience, "you're destroying my life!"

"Letters/X 2" might show the dark side of love, but Neylan and company say it's still fit for Valentine's Day. "It's for all of us to celebrate the fact that there's always an end, and we've all been there," says Roberts. "Everyone can accept the ridiculousness of it." Neylan agrees. "It's for anyone who's been in love and had to break it off," she says enthusiastically. "It's meant to unite people!"

(2005-02-08)

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