The Centenary Theatre Group Presents 84 Charing Cross Road

Chelmer Community Theatre

12th July-3rd August 2025

 

Dr Gemma Regan

 

A well produced bibliophile’s delight to satiate the soul!

 

The Centenary Theatre Group’s production of Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road is a delight for all bibliophiles like myself, chronicling years of correspondence between Helene, a burgeoning playwright in New York willing to pay top dollar for rare books and Frank Doel, a bookshop antiquarian at Charing Cross Road in London. 

 

It is a conservative, yet entertaining interpretation of the book, adapted by James Roose Evans. It was also a film starring Anthony Hopkins as the contemplative English bookseller and Anne Bancroft as Helene, the avid, yet very particular book collector.  The simple correspondence is simultaneously divided between two scenes, the London bookshop and the desk in Helene’s cramped New York condo. 

 

The inspiration for author Helene Hanff was her own quest to obtain rare and beautiful books from England by post. She told The New York Times in 1982, “I wrote great dialogue, but I couldn’t invent a story to save my neck!” Her memoir is a simple tale of years of correspondence between the customer and the book merchant. The CTG production tenderly highlights the importance of making human connections and the bibliolater’s thrill of searching for and eventually owning a particular book to be feverishly read and then proudly displayed on a shelf. 

 

Selina Kadell plays the frumpy, kind-hearted yank and is excellent at balancing Helene’s American brashness with a genuine tenderness and vulnerability. Frank is gently played by Josh Nixon as a reserved, very English gentleman who blossoms over the years with each letter and gift. Although the book was only published just over fifty years ago, it would now be rare for such a rapport to develop between a customer and merchant in the fast-paced life of email and online shopping. It is disturbing to realise that the opportunity for a relationship to develop through a time-consuming letter correspondence between strangers and personalised customer service has likely been lost forever. 

 

The show is well cast and produced by Alison Lees in her inaugural role as Director, with a tender and amusing production performed adroitly by all. Aussie actor Kadell pulls off a convincing American accent as Helene, but some of the English accents were less genuine; although they did not distract from the dialogue-driven scenes. Nixon, as Frank, is conservative with his inflection and mannerisms, which helps to convey the restrained Englishman in a dusty, quiet bookshop.

 

The simple set is effectively divided into a New York loft and a dusty old antiquarian bookshop in London, enabling the dialogue across the Atlantic to flow seamlessly. As time progresses, other characters from the bookshop get involved in the correspondence, sending her letters secretly, so not to offend Frank, who monopolises the correspondence with the generous and amusing American customer. The cast and comedy becomes more animated as Helene shares more details of her life, and the overseas gifts become more elaborate and expensive.

 

Although it is not a dynamic play, I thoroughly enjoyed the anecdotes including how to make a great Yorkshire Pudding (my tip: add an extra egg for the rise). Good writing and acting can satiate the soul with evocative memories (like egg in the pudding); this the CTG did very well. The delicious mulled wine from the bar made the evening a tender, warm and enjoyable experience on a cold Winter’s night in Brisbane!