A Night of Mirth and Marriage at LTV With Harris Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl

As the holidays approach, our natural instinct is to gravitate toward the comfort of family and friends. In times of political upheaval and social change, like now, it feels even more important to draw near the hearth and share stories and messages of hope and support with those who provide a sense of acceptance, validation and even love.

Love, indeed, is on the post-Thanksgiving menu this weekend when two East End residents and good friends — Harris Yulin and Mercedes Ruehl —reunite on the stage of LTV Studios in Wainscott for a one-night only performance exploring the special bond shared by husbands and wives.

Titled “Scenes of Mirth & Marriage: A Theatrical Evening,” the show on Saturday, November 30, at 7 p.m. is a staged reading of portions of plays that offer a range of perspectives on spousal relationships.

Presented by Playwrights' Theatre of East Hampton, the show is produced by LTV’s creative director Josh Gladstone and is directed by James Larocca. Though perhaps best known locally as the former mayor of Sag Harbor, Larocca comes to this project with a good deal of theatrical experience both as a playwright and director.

In the early 2000s, Gladstone, then director of The John Drew Theater at Guild Hall, presented a number of shows under the auspices of Playwrights' Theatre of East Hampton, which was founded by Mitzi and Perry Pazer in 1992. During that time, Larocca helmed several readings and performances at Guild Hall and was a founding member of the Naked Stage, theater collaborative at the John Drew. Then in 2006, Larocca was tapped to direct Guild Hall’s 75th anniversary production, a star-studded variety show featuring many resident celebrity performers on the East End. Among them was Yulin, who, along with his wife, actress Kristen Lowman, became close friends of Larocca’s.

“Harris and I have an easy friendship,” Larocca said.

When Gladstone joined the staff of LTV Studios a couple years ago, he revived the dormant Playwrights’ Theatre of East Hampton and has since overseen several shows in the Wainscott space. “Mirth & Marriage” is just the latest, and for Yulin and Ruehl, it follows a performance pattern with which they are well acquainted. Over the years, the pair have presented several readings on the East End, including A.R. Gurney’s perennial favorite “Love Letters” about two childhood friends who share a lifetime of correspondence and confidences.

“Mercedes and I have done a bunch of these shows and readings,” Yulin explained in a recent phone interview. “So with this one, Josh Gladstone wanted to do it, Mercedes wanted to do it and then I came along and said I would do it too.”

For Ruehl, performing with Yulin is familiar territory that’s well within her comfort zone.

“Harris and I have known each other for a while.” Ruehl explained over lunch in Sag Harbor. “We met out here, but I can’t remember who introduced us. We knew mutual people and have been long-term friends for 30 years.”

Though they have never been romantically linked, Ruehl describes her bond with Yulin as one that is both deep and authentic in a way that few friendships between men and women are.

“We are friends who have, in some ways, filled out each other’s lives, so we have now what was called in the 12th century, fin’amor — courtly love,” she said. “It’s a long, deep and loving relationship. It’s especially nice to have a friendship with a man because it’s usually unachievable. But this has been a true friendship.”

And bonding with true friends during times of uncertainty is what life is all about. In the wake of the recent election, many people are concerned about what lies ahead, which is why, Ruehl noted, having access to art and the comfort that artists bring to the table is vital for providing perspective and a much needed diversion.

“We would go crazy at this point without art,” Ruehl said. “Art thrives on the truth and it dies in falsehood. I seem to remember in the smaller nations of the Soviet Union, people survived on the underground theater in all these countries — and some of that came to the U.S. with great power and influence.”

“Great playwrights sustain morale,” she added.

The evening at LTV will, indeed, feature great playwrights — specifically Edward Albee, Nöel Coward and Harold Pinter — and scenes selected from their respective plays “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (1962), “Private Lives” (1930) and “Night” (1969). The common thread is that each of the scenes offers a glimpse into a different aspect of married life and a unique take on various stages of a relationship.

“I like the contrast in relationships,” Ruehl explained of the three plays. “In the first scene, we have a very testy, dangerous scene with Martha and George. Then comes Nöel Coward and ‘Private Lives,’ and it's also testy and dangerous, but in an elegant 1930s everything-will-wind-up-OK kind of way. In the Pinter play, you get a sort of wise acceptance on the part of both the man and the woman. There’s an affection that turns through all the doubt and misremembering — a deep seated, unbreakable connection, so it’s a little bit of a progression.”

When asked how he and Ruehl first began doing staged readings together, Yulin said, “I knew Mercedes casually for quite a while when I asked her to take part in a reading I was doing, which she did. Then we did another and another, and we then developed a comfort level.

“She was someone who I had been working with and absolutely trusted to come up with the goods,” he added. “Then we became very good friends.

“We hope it will be a joy. We want to do anything we can for Josh and it’s a fun night out with friends,” he added of the upcoming LTV show. “We always like to do as much as we can.”

For her part, when asked if recent political events have caused her to re-think the messaging in the plays in “Mirth & Marriage,” Ruehl ponders the question for a bit before responding.

“In all three plays we’re looking at — by Albee, Coward and Pinter — the strength of the woman is irrefutable and the strength of the woman is core to all three pieces,” she said. “I find myself wondering what the position of women will be in the coming years. I think that, for the most part, we are still considered second class citizens. I know it sounds anathema, but the ERA is essential for women, essential for immigrants, essential for Black people and Native Americans. Why can’t it get passed?

“What is going to arise out of a new government when we get what we get in January?” she asked. “So yeah, on a modest level Harris and I are looking at probably one of the most, if not the most, basic of social unions — a union between a man and a woman. That’s what the plays we’ll be working on examine.

“People say the family is the basic unit of society, but before that is this agreement between a man and a woman. That’s what this performance is about.”

“Scenes of Mirth & Marriage: A Theatrical Evening” will be presented at LTV Studios on Saturday, November 30, at 7 p.m. Sound is by David M. Brandenburg and lighting is by Hudson Woelk. Tickets $30 (VIP café seating $65) at ltveh.org. Admission at the door is $35. LTV Studios is at 75 Industrial Road in Wainscott.