“The course of true love never did run smooth.” Shakespeare was definitely on to something there. This theme repeats and repeats through the centuries as we search, sometimes ache, for that one true love. The love that, despite all odds, feels like home.

“Talley’s Folly,” Heartwood’s current show opening this Friday, April 28 is, without a doubt, an example of true love not running smoothly. This 1980 Pulitzer Prize winner written by Lanford Wilson takes us to the year 1944 in Lebanon, Missouri. There, Sally Talley (Nanette Hennig Fraser) lives in the family home she desperately wishes to escape from and the only place she can do that is in the folly, a boat house/gazebo (very Victorian, very romantic) her uncle built on a far end of the property. Her family is one of the major families in Lebanon: Successful, wealthy, conservative, and Methodists. Sally does not share her family’s political views and they consider her to be the family’s socialist – and you can bet that doesn’t make anyone in her family brim over with pride. And there’s that something else ...

Sally is a nurse’s aide in the Springfield hospital. And in the summer of 1943, she meets the vacationing Matt Friedman (Matt Lugosch). Matt, a Jewish immigrant from Lithuania, lives in St. Louis and works as an accountant. During their whirlwind romance, the pair fall in love. But both of them have past experiences that stall the progression of the love they feel. At the end of Matt’s vacation, Sally was supposed to go up to her house, pack a few things, then meet Matt back at the boat house. She never did.

Matt returned to his life in St. Louis and writes to Sally every, single, day. He does so for a year; his last letter tells Sally precisely when he is returning to Lebanon. On July 4, 1944, as World War II rages on, Matt has come back, and he does not mean to leave alone again. You see, the year before, Sally went to her house on their last night together at the boat house, after dancing to the band playing across the river, to pack a few things and leave with Matt. But she never returned. Never wrote a word back to him. Still, Matt is certain she is the only woman for him, and he plans on Sally accepting his proposal of marriage.

Sally’s whole family goes bananas when Matt shows up at their door – again. There was much shouting, threats ... and then a shotgun emerged. Undaunted, Matt goes down to the boat house to await Sally. When Sally returns home from work, she is told Matt was, or is still, there. Her father says Matt is “more dangerous than Roosevelt!”

She reluctantly goes down to the boat house, having seen Matt’s car is still in the yard, intending to send him on his way. Alone. But Matt has other plans.

Both Fraser and Lugosch deliver nuanced performances as these two unlikely yet made for each other characters. It isn’t until late in the play that each one shares defining moments of their youth and young adulthood … all is revealed … and it is as much a relief for the audience, I believe, as it is for the characters.

You want these two to be together. At the outset Matt addresses the audience and tells them what is about to, hopefully, happen. He says “This is a waltz, remember – one ... two ... three, one … two … three.” And there you are – witnesses to what is about to transpire.

As I watched and listened, reading reactions on each actor’s face that particularly in Fraser’s performance speak volumes; and the body language, the charm that is Matt, conveyed with such sincerity by Lugosch, that the truth of this piece was indeed being presented.

The two-person show is an intimate one – for actors and audiences alike. The intensity of a theater experience such as this is dependent on the performances. Actors Nanette Hennig Fraser and Joe Lugosch deliver such exquisite performances, the 97-minute show (no intermission) doesn’t seem like enough time to spend with Sally and Matt, but then, those two definitely have some time to make up for.

1944 or 2023, human relationships, the desire for a true love, that destined love, soul mate seems as impossible now as then. Prejudice, narrow-mindedness, fear, doubt and insecurity still figure prominently almost 100 years later! Fortunately, as Shakespeare wrote in “A Midsummer’s Dream,” more and more it seems “Love looks not with eyes, but with the mind.”

Said Lugosch of the two-person show experience, “As actors, to have truth, to allow yourself to give fully to it is indulgent. As actors we do all kinds of theater, we value character study.”

Added Fraser, “Some shows lend themselves into being entertaining for the audience, but this is for us. If we are those two characters they are out of their time, existing in this space.”

Join these gifted actors in Poe Theater and Heartwood’s production of “Talley’s Folly,” directed by Griff Braley. The gorgeous, romantic set design is one Braley borrowed from John Lee Beattie. You will want something similar in your own yard – even if you aren’t near a body of water!

Opening night is this Friday, April 28, for five performances. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. for all shows, April 28 and 29, May 4-6 at Poe Theater, Newcastle. Tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for students. Get yours through the box office at 207-563-1373 or info@ heartwoodtheater.org