LADDER DAY SAINT Ritter climbs toward success.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, prolific writer and aviator (and mother of six), achieved her distinguished career without the support system available to female artists today. Her solid, überaccomplished flyboy husband, Charles, recognized her talent but failed to acknowledge the particular needs of a female writer and parent.

So when the opportunity arose to meet French writer, aviator and creative soul mate Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Morrow Lindbergh jumped at it. North reimagines this one-time encounter, combining fact and fiction to illustrate Morrow Lindbergh’s awakening awareness of her unique life’s substantial demands. As Saint-Exupéry becomes her spiritual and literary compass, Morrow Lindbergh begins to voice her professional insecurities and the constraints of her relationship with Charles.

Schlueter’s script intelligently addresses the complexities of the Lindberghs’ work, married life and politics (their isolationist views earned them pariah status in the hawkish 1940s). Brad Steinmetz’s spare set consists solely of three swings and a ladder, symbols of elevation and flight—or, in Anne’s case, loss (her murdered first child was kidnapped via a ladder to a second-story window). Under the weight of difficult material, North’s pacing never flags.

Ritter’s appealing, vulnerable Morrow Lindbergh captures a woman torn apart by ambition, yearning and grief; Roche skillfully portrays “St. Ex’s” gentle, whimsical humor and dedication to his craft. Poole’s Lindbergh is a man completely committed to skill and logic but devoid of a sorely needed dose of compassion and sensitivity. Together, the ensemble flies.