Poetic Pen Pals at Guild Hall in East Hampton

[caption id="attachment_55199" align="alignnone" width="800"] Kathleen Chalfant and Harris Yulin as poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell in a fall 2016 Women’s Project Theater production of “Dear Elizabeth” in New York City. Photo by Joan Marcus[/caption]

By Annette Hinkle

Two poets, three marriages, 30 years, 400 letters.

This brief summary of the relationship between Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop may be technically accurate, but numbers don’t tell the whole story — and they certainly don’t begin to scratch the surface of the deep friendship these two renown poets shared for much of the 20^th century.

For that part of the tale, we need look no further than actors Harris Yulin and Kathleen Chalfant. On Saturday, the pair will present a staged reading of Sarah Ruhl’s play “Dear Elizabeth: The Letters of Elizabeth Bishop & Robert Lowell” in a one night only performance at Guild Hall.

This material is familiar terrain for Mr. Yulin and Ms. Chalfant, who, like Lowell and Bishop, not only share a long friendship thanks to their shared profession, but also appeared as Lowell and Bishop respectively last fall in the Women’s Project Theater production of “Dear Elizabeth.” Directed by Kate Whoriskey at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre in Manhattan, that show featured several pairs of actors, including Mr. Yulin and Ms. Chalfant, who each cycled into the roles for a one-week run.

At Guild Hall on Saturday, Mr. Yulin will be, for want of a better word, directing “Dear Elizabeth” as part of a long standing tradition between he and the theater.

“I usually do something every year with Guild Hall. If I don’t do a big thing, then I do a one-off,” explains Mr. Yulin, a Bridgehampton resident. “It’s always something that I think is going to be easier than it turns out to be.”

In recent years, those “one-offs’ have included readings of Simon Gray’s “The Old Masters,” William Douglas-Home’s “The Kingfisher,” and in 2011, a celebrity filled reading of works by Tennessee Williams in honor of the playwright’s 100^th birthday.

“I said I’d put together something easy, like an homage, but it took me three weeks,” recalls Mr. Yulin of the Williams piece. “From notebooks, journals, plays and autobiographies, every word was his — it went from his start as a writer at 14 to after ‘Glass Menagerie.’”

In “Dear Elizabeth,” the words, again, are true to the subjects of the piece, but in this case they belong to Lowell and Bishop, who met in New York in 1947 after they were introduced by fellow poet and critic Randall Jarrell, and they come from correspondence put into script form by playwright Sarah Ruhl.

“Lowell wrote a very appreciative review of Elizabeth’s book of poetry and she wrote back thanking him — she really appreciated it,” says Mr. Yulin, explaining how the friendship between the two poets began. “They got each other, personally and professionally.”

“What’s worthy about their relationship, I think, is partly the language of the people involved,” he adds. “They were both pretty consequential poets and there are some wonderful passages in the play.”

Though they soon became great friends, theirs was truly a friendship based on correspondence. For most of their lives, Lowell and Bishop didn’t live in the same city and they saw each other primarily during visits to one another.

“He came to visit her in Maine when she was there,” says Mr. Yulin. “We conjecture if they did had an affair, it was then. And if they did, it was brief — maybe just one night.”

Though they may have clicked personally and professionally, theirs certainly wasn’t a friendship based on romance. While Lowell married three different women, Bishop wasn’t one of them. Ironically, in the absence of the tension that typically comes with sexual attraction it was as if Lowell and Bishop were free to build a much more profound friendship — one based on deep and abiding love and respect for one another’s writing and thought process.

“Part of the friendship was always mysterious. The chemistry, as someone says, was also very simpatico in terms of each other’s work,” explains Mr. Yulin. “He really appreciated her work and she appreciated his. It’s a powerful spur that brings people together. They were very supportive of each other.”

“Over time their friendship doesn't change as much as it deepens,” says Mr. Yulin. “They soon realize they don’t have any romantic future together, so the friendship just gets deeper and they get closer.”

In the years that followed, Bishop remained a steadfast presence through Lowell’s three marriages — to Jean Stafford, Elizabeth Hardwick, and finally Caroline Blackwood (who incidentally owned a home on Union Street in Sag Harbor from 1987 until her death in 1996). The reason for their platonic friendship may be explained by Bishop’s eventual relationship with Brazilian architect Maria Carlota Costallat de Macedo Soares, or Lota as she was known. It was not always an easy partnership. Bishop battled alcoholism while Lota eventually suffered a nervous breakdown and died after a tranquilizer overdose in 1967.

Lowell also had his demons and his manic-depressive breakdowns were epic. Though not explicitly explored in “Dear Elizabeth,” Mr. Yulin notes that the poet’s mental illness is, nonetheless, present in the script.

“It comes up and the mental issues are more or less understood. At one point he is writing from McLean’s Hospital. We understand it and we don’t go into great detail about it,” explains Mr. Yulin who admits he knew very little about Lowell and Bishop when he came to “Dear Elizabeth” and has since read more about the poets and their work.

“Reading Lowell’s biography by Ian Hamilton, Jesus, it was so painful, so wrought and what a rough trip, especially for Elizabeth Hardwick,” adds Mr. Yulin. “She put up with an incredible amount.”

While Lowell and Bishop are regarded as renowned 20^th century poets, unless you’re a scholar or fan of the genre, they are hardly household names these days. But Mr. Yulin doesn’t see that as a hindrance for audiences of “Dear Elizabeth.”

“It doesn't seem to me you need to know anything about them. You find out very quickly what they do for a living, it’s stated and that’s how the play begins,” he says. “I think the evening actually might be a spur to learning something about them and becoming interested in these people and the richness of their lives.”

“Dear Elizabeth: The Letters of Elizabeth Bishop & Robert Lowell,” runs one night only, Saturday, September 10 at 8 p.m. at Guild Hall, 158 Main Street, East Hampton. In addition to Harris Yulin and Kathleen Chalfant, the reading features Chloe Dirksen as the stage manager. Tickets are $30 to $50 ($28 to $48 members). To reserve, visit guildhall.org or call (631) 324-4050.