For twenty years, from 1949, when she was thirty-two, until 1969, a struggling New York writer named Helene Hanff and the staff at the London antiquarian bookshop Marks & Co carried
on a remarkable correspondence. It began with an innocent enquiry about fine book editions, but continued for two decades.
Their letters, encompassing a period that went from Churchill’s war to the Beatles’s invasion, became a chronicle of an era as well as a record of a deep friendship. 84, Charing Cross Road is James Roose-Evans’s unique adaptation for the stage of this cross-Atlantic correspondence.
This revival production opened at Salisbury Playhouse in the UK on 5 February 2015 and subsequently at Cambridge Arts Theatre on 2 September 2016. Directed by the playwright, the production featured Lysette Anthony, Jemma Churchill, Janie Dee, Clive Francis, Alice Haig, Ted Merwood and Samuel Townsend.