Pen friends: Erik Thomson and Blazey Best. Photo: PrudenceUpton
Helene Hanff’s 1970 non-fiction book, 84 Charing Cross Road, is charmingly realised in this eponymously named play at the Ensemble with Erik Thomson and Blazey Best in the leading roles. In 1981, the book was adapted for the stage by James Roose-Evans, and this is the version so ably directed by the Ensemble’s Mark Kilmurry.
It begins in the 1940s, with the two principals far apart: Frank Doel (Thomson) was the chief buyer for antiquarian booksellers Marks & Co, located in London’s Charing Cross Road; Helen Hanff (Best) was a screenreader and aspirant screenwriter living in a ‘one-room hovel’ in a New York brownstone. In search of obscure classics and British literature titles she was unable to find in the US, Hanff contacted Marks & Co and it fell to Doel to fulfil her requests. Thus began a 20-year correspondence, which became a long-distance, long-lasting and affectionate friendship.
It was a slow burn. Hanff’s strident New York tones and attitude are about as different as they can be from Doel’s soft-spoken and quiet demeanour and this contrast works very well when their letters are enacted on the Ensemble stage. Wise-cracking and sassy, Hanff manages to break down Doel’s proper British reserve as the pair connect over their mutual love of books and English literature – and what a delight it is to hear a tale that reveres books and how they looked and smelt and felt in this age of audio and ebooks.
Hanff becomes not only a regular customer and correspondent with Doel, but also a friend to the other ‘inmates’ of the bookshop – secretary Megan (Katie Fitchett), assistant Cecily (Angela Mahlatjie) and general factotum Bill (Brian Meegan) – all of whose performances enrich the story of their characters’ lives and of the changing mores of the times. 84 Charing Cross Road offers a snapshot of the decades, from war and post-war rationing (Hanff sends Doel and his staff food parcels via Denmark. Dried eggs, anyone?) to the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on to Carnaby Street, the Beatles and the Swinging Sixties.
Nick Fry has created a fabulously atmospheric set, with floor to ceiling bookshelves which serve both Hanff’s ‘hovel’ and the bookstore, and an authentic-looking early 20th century shop interior. Unable to visit Marks & Co herself, Hanff despatches an American friend Maxine (Fitchett again) to report back on the “loveliest old shop… just out of Dickens… you smell it before you see it”. Matt Cox’s lighting brings an olde worlde feel to the place.
There is much humour in the letters and in these actors’ performances. The timing is brisk and spot on – all credit to Thomson, Best and Kilmurry – letters posted in New York are opened and read out by Doel almost simultaneously, and vice versa. The play runs for two hours and twenty minutes (with an interval), and the time flies.
84 Charing Cross Road is a gentle play and as director Kilmurry notes in the program, it is a welcome escape when ‘the world is raging’ to have a story which at its heart is about ‘communication, kindness, love and … two people who, despite the forever changing times and life’s challenges manage to maintain a beautiful correspondence based on trust, humour and love.’
Until 13 June
Tickets:$46-95
https://www.ensemble.com.au/shows/84-charing-cross-road/
