Tony Osborn directs '84 Charing Cross Road'
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from July 1986.
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The production is as unusual as it is ambitious, taking place in two different locations simultaneously: a shop on Charring Cross Road, London, and Helene Hanff's apartment in New York. Essentially, the play is light comedy, a poignant love story about two people who conduct a love affair through correspondence; during the flowering of their love, the couple never actually meet.
Both locations are on set throughout the play, with Helene Hanff, played by Claire Vincent, composing letters to her distant love, Frank Doel, played by Gordon Neilson, who runs the shop at 84 Charing Cross Road. As she writes her letters, Hanff voices them to the audience. Similarly, Doel replies to her letters, letting the audience know their content.
The audience becomes privy to their burgeoning love as letters are written or received and as their deepest emotions for one another, though they have never met, are revealed.
This fast-paced comedy also embodies pathos, but to say more would be to give away the final irony, the bitter twist at the end of this touching piece.
84 Charing Cross Road, which is produced by Colin Wilson and directed by Tony Osborn, stars a talented cast in supporting roles, including Martin Couch as William Humphries, Deborah Walker as Maxine Stuart, Chris Bowring as Mr. Martin, Kate Bowring as Joan Todd, Melissa Richards as Cecily Farr and Billy Flynn, playing two parts, as Thomas and the pilot. Stage manager is Hilda Bodden.
The production is scheduled to run at the Royal Palms Hotel the first two weekends of September. Tickets will be available from a CDS representative outside Scotiabank from mid-August or at the door on show nights.
