Martha Henry's awards include the 1996 Maclean's Magazine Honor Roll, the 1996 Genie Award for Best Actress, and the 1996 Governor General's Award for Lifetime Achievement. She and Rod Beattie, star of the recently extended Wingfield Unbound, will offer a one-night performance of A.R. Gurney's Love Letters to benefit Belfry Theatre of Victoria.

Henry won her 1996 plaudits for her work as Mary Tyrone in the Stratford Festival's Long Day's Journey Into Night, recently captured on a film playing at Canadian art theatres. Detroit-born, Henry appeared at NY's Lincoln Center in Antigone (1971) and became the first graduate of Montreal's National Theatre school.

Beattie (pronounced bee-tee), a 9-year veteran at the Stratford Festival, won a 1992 Best Actor, Dora Mavor Moore Award (Toronto's equivalent of the Tony) for his work in The Wingfield Trilogy at Canadian Stage, Toronto.

All proceeds from $40 tickets to the Jan. 26 staging will go to fund the theatre. Audience members can meet with Henry and Beattie at a post show reception.

An epistolary comedy/drama, read by the actors from onstage scripts, Love Letters follows the life-long relationship of a rich young man and a non-conformist young woman. Gurney's other plays include Sylvia, The Cocktail Hour and The Dining Room. In other Belfry news, Wingfield Unbound was just extended to Feb. 8 because the original playing dates were 90% sold-out before the show even opened Jan. 9. Belfry spokesperson Mark Dussault said next season is still being planned, but likely plays include Steve Martin's Picasso At The Lapin Agile and Terrence McNally's A Perfect Ganesh, as well as a couple of Canadian plays.

For tickets and information on the Love Letters benefit or other Belfry shows, call (604) 385-6815.

--By David Lefkowitz