A. R. Gurney (1930–2017)

This is a beautifully written play. Written and performed so simply and yet carries a ton of heart.

A comedy of manners billed as a sequel to "Merchant of Venice." Portia’s marriage to Bassanio, portrayed here as an Irish-Catholic jock, hasn’t gotten off the ground, so to speak. The union hasn’t been consummated yet. Bassanio has been too busy, shooting hoops and drinking a few brews with the boys.
And Antonio, the merchant himself, is played as a mournful, opera-loving homosexual who pines hopelessly for Bassanio.

The love story between Andrew and Melissa is heartbreaking in that it spanned for decades, with timing troubles plaguing the couple (when one was ready, the other was in a relationship or not ready to settle down), and that it evades the happy endings that I hold so dear. Their love seems painstakingly real, captured in correspondence, leaving the reader to assume what happens in between (a very nice touch).

An interesting idea poorly executed. The dialogue and the set up comes off like the high school play done by the Young Democrats. It spells everything out, explains its own jokes, and just basically gets by on a clever concept. The metaphors, however, are twisted way too far, and eventually the entire thing falls apart. This could have used several more revisions before it went public.