Not surprisingly, love is the subject of Chester Playhouse’s summer
theatre confection Heart to Heart. The hook is that it’s not one
story, but five short vignettes exploring various permutations of
“mature” love. It stars Canadian theatre greats Lally Cadeau and Nigel
Bennett, who are clearly enjoying both the play and each other as they
change costumes, accents and hairstyles at a dizzying speed. The
vignettes include a man and woman meeting each other for the first time
through a singles ad, an efficient secretary who’s hopelessly in love
with her gay boss, a husband and wife, both actors, facing aging and
mortality, a disturbingly truthful brother shoring up his sister on her
wedding day and a couple attempting to broker an agreeable divorce as
they vacation together. It’s a light romantic comedy with a twist, and
with two wonderful actors who manage to make it memorable.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2009.