Preview: 84 Charing Cross Road, Church Hill Theatre

Published on Thursday 10 March 2011 15:20

A DYING art in these text obsessed times, but letter writing is brought sharply into focus at the Church Hill Theatre, next week.

Almost four decades after it was adapted as a BBC Play For Today, Edinburgh People's Theatre (EPT) bring new life to James Roose-Evans' adaptation of 84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff's classic novel documenting a long-distance friendship.

First published in 1970, 84 Charing Cross Road tells the story of a 20-year correspondence between Hanff, a New York City-based writer, and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, an antiquarian booksellers in London.

No prizes for guessing the address of the shop. The novel and play not only give an insight in to the lives of the main characters, but also provide a social commentary on life on either side of the Atlantic over 20 years.

Hanff first contacted the shop in 1949, in an attempt to track down some of the more obscure classic British titles she had been unable to find in her native New York.

Doel replied and a long-distance friendship evolved between the pair and the staff of 84 Charing Cross Road. They not only exchanged letters discussing topics as diverse as how to make Yorkshire pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, but also swapped Christmas and birthday gifts. Hanff even sent food parcels to England during the rationing the country was subjected to post-World War Two.

Director Val Lennie says, "This is a heart-warming tale of a genuine friendship between two people living in a time of great social change, both in England and America.

"Throughout the play we get to see all the characters grow through this blossoming but unlikely friendship between the brash Helene and the staid Frank."

Giving a glimpse into two very different real lives, 84 Charing Cross Road was first adapted as a play in 1975, when Hugh Whitemore adapted it for the BBC's Play For Today series - Frank Finlay and Anne Jackson starred.

Six years later Roose-Evans adapted it for the stage in a two-character version, first produced at the Salisbury Playhouse. On that occasion Rosemary Leach and David Swift played the lead roles and transferred with the play when it opened on the West End.

On Broadway, a year later, Ellen Burstyn and Joseph Maher brought the characters to life, but the play ran for just 96 performances.

Whitemore returned to the project in 1987, writing the screenplay for the film version, starring Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft, who won the BAFTA for Best Actress for her portrayal.

In a post script to the play's history, Roose-Evans again adapted the play in 2007, this time for a Radio 4 production starring Gillian Anderson and Denis Lawson.

Consequently, Richard Godden and Pauline Waugh, who play Doel and Hanff in the EPT production, have big shoes to fill. Lennie is unperturbed, "It is a lovely piece of theatre that doubles as a social catalogue of the era," she says. "I hope people enjoy it as we have had a great deal of fun working on this play."

In a sad post script to the piece, the real Hanff left it too late to visit her bookshop pen-friends. Doel died in December 1968 and by the time she made it to London in the summer of 1971, the bookshop had closed.

84 Charing Cross Road, Church Hill Theatre, Morningside Road, Wednesday-Saturday, 7.30pm, 9, 0131-668 2019