Celebrities Linda Purl (Happy Days, Matlock and The Office) and Patrick Duffy (Step by Step and Dallas) bring real-life romance to the Orinda Theatre when they perform in A.R. Gurney’s Love Letters Feb. 10. Thanks to the pandemic, the two busy actors had time to get to know one another in their own Zoom version of Love Letters.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the Orinda Theatre presents A.R. Gurney’s romantic play Love Letters, featuring real-life couple Linda Purl and Patrick Duffy.
“Love Letters is a show I’ve wanted to do for some time,” said Orinda Theatre’s owner Derek Zemrak. “It’s the perfect show for Valentine’s Day, very romantic and a favorite among celebrities. I was very happy Linda and Patrick were available to do the show.”
Purl’s extensive and varied acting accomplishments include recurring roles on such television shows as Happy Days, Matlock and The Office, as well as extensive Broadway credits and several solo jazz albums.
Duffy made his mark in television as heartthrob Bobby Ewing on the prime time soap opera Dallas, which optimized the 80’s cultural worship of wealth and greed. After Dallas, Duffy played opposite Suzanne Somers for seven seasons in the comedy Step by Step.
While the staging for Love Letters is simple, the texture, dynamics and humor in Gurney’s writing is anything but. The meticulously crafted work uses the “epistolary” form where two performers sit or stand side by side reading from correspondence as they reveal their warm and complicated 50-year relationship.
“This play is such a flawless piece. It holds up over time and packs an emotional wallop,” said Purl.
“There is a gift in reading a play like this,” Duffy said. “To visually connect with the words without worrying what your next line is and knowing your partner is right next to you is a very rewarding experience.”
The two performers also have their own unique love story that involves lots of missed opportunities and a long-distance romance.
They met while doing a play reading in 1980, but didn’t see each other again until 20 years later when Purl found herself in London to see her friend Richard Thomas in the play Art, which also starred Duffy. Again, it was just a quick hello.
Twenty years later, however, they met at a celebrity signing and had time to strike up a real conversation.
“Pat had lost touch with Richard and through a three-way text, I was able to connect them again,” said Purl. “Then the pandemic hit, Richard dropped off our texts, but Pat and I continued.”
The texting morphed into nightly Zoom meetings that went on for two months.
“It was a sequence of love letters via Zoom,” Duffy said. “We thought there was something in this relationship, and we needed to decide if it was real, so I drove 23 hours from Oregon, where I was living at the time, and ended up on her doorstep in Colorado. We’ve never been apart since.”
Purl added, “We often look at each other and just marvel how things have worked out.”
Duffy and Purl had a chance to do Love Letters a few years ago while touring with the thriller Catch Me If You Can in Europe.
“We went from England to Belfast for a performance, but our set didn’t show up and our producer asked us to do Love Letters instead,” explained Purl. “We jumped in with no rehearsal and did it for several nights until our set for the other show finally arrived.”
Duffy confirmed what a wild adventure their Belfast performance was and noted how excited they are to perform the show again under much calmer circumstances in Orinda.
“Linda is passionate about theater work,” Duffy said. “I started in theater in the ‘60s, but then my television career took off, and I didn’t do theater for the longest time. When I look at the substantial theatrical roles Linda has done, I feel like I’m just a spear carrier waiting in the wings.”
While Purl is much more complimentary about Duffy’s stage roles, she does agree with him about being excited to perform Love Letters in Orinda.
“Coming out of COVID, it means more to go to a live event. I don’t think any of us take it for granted as perhaps we did before COVID,” she said.
Love Letters performs Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. at the Orinda Theatre, 2 Orinda Theatre Square. Call 925.254.9060 or go to www.orindamovies.com/events/8426-love-letters-live-performance-by-linda-purl-and-patrick-duffy/.
