The Pulitzer Prize nominated play “Love Letters” is being produced at Hamilton’s Fitton Center for the Creative Arts this week.

The stripped-down, two-actor production concerns two childhood friends who drift apart in young adulthood but stay in touch for life through a series of notes, letters and cards. Henry Cepluch, the show’s director, said the initial, physical split happens when Andrew Makepeace Ladd III joins the Navy and embarks on a U.S. Senatorial career while Melissa Gardner remains a small-town civilian.

“She’s the more artistic of the two, a free spirit and into painting,” he said. “He’s more of a conservative, practical guy.”

The set consists of Andrew and Melissa sitting at opposite desks, reading their correspondences aloud. For those who might question the entertainment value of this, Cepluch said that was precisely the point.

“The author wrote an introduction to theater companies where he instructed them not to use background music, not to do costume changes,” he said. “He wanted to keep the interest in the letters themselves and what they reveal about the other person. If an actor has no reason to move and does so, it’s distracting, so nobody gets up and runs around. Some of the notes are just single one-liners, and then it bounces back to the other person. It really relies on the characters’ voices, and what your getting is two lifetimes.”

Those lifetimes include a lot of bitterness and disappointment for Andrew and Melissa, romantically and professionally, and the letters provide a therapeutic crutch, forging a deep, mutual bond. It’s a relationship defined largely by absence. The implication is that if they’d remained in the same town together, the friendship would’ve quickly fizzled out.

“Love Letters” is being produced at the Fitton Center as part of the Mad Anthony Theatre Company, which Cepluch started 12 years ago. “Love Letters” fits perfectly into Cepluch’s mission statement of unconventional theater combined with low maintenance.

“I’m always on the lookout for small shows because we only have a small black box to perform in,” he said. “ ‘Love Letters’ is easy. Two actors, they don’t have to memorize anything, and it’s a charming play, full of comedy and pathos.”