“Pen Pals” charts a friendship over the decades

Has there ever been someone who knows all your intimate secrets, who shares the highs and lows of your life over years and decades, and who shares their life, their tragedies and triumphs, with you the same way — and yet has never met you in person? Pen Pals, a new play by Michael Griffo, now playing for a strictly-limited run at the New Jersey Repertory Company in Long Branch, offers a glimpse of how such a relationship develops. 

The show begins in 1955, when 14-year-old Bernadette is assigned a pen pal in England, another 14-year-old named Margaret. Bernie (as she likes to be called), an exuberant Jersey girl from a large family, gives Margaret, an only child, her very first nickname — Mags, which Margaret loves. The two exchange letters about school, classes and classmates, and potential boyfriends. As they mature, they discuss kissing (who should be their first?), and physical and emotional romance (how far should a boy be allowed to go, and when?).

They exchange pictures, artwork (Mags), play programs (Bernie), recipes, and the highs and lows of life after high school. They console each other through losses, sexual escapades (mostly Mags’), marriages, pregnancies, and world events over the course of decades.

There are other epistolic shows — Love Letters and Dear Jack, Dear Louise come to mind — but Pen Pals is a rare one that traces a female friendship over nearly five decades. Playwright Griffo has endowed Bernie and Mags with lively, sometimes conflicting personalities, basing his script on the real-life correspondence between Jean Marsch Griffo and Sheila Bashforth.

This play is mined for all its emotional worth by the cast — Nancy McKeon as Bernie and Gail Winar as Mags — under the deft direction of NJ Rep’s Artistic Director, SuzAnne Barabas. These two talented actors read the letters, gleaned from a real-life friendship, maturing from giddy, eager teens to mature women in their 60’s through subtle changes in tone and inflection. Listening to them, one gets the impression of eavesdropping on an intimate conversation between two girls who whole-heartedly threw themselves into what became a lifetime adventure in friendship.

The play is presented in the theatre’s intimate lobby space, and NJ Rep’s technical all-stars come through once again. Jessica Parks’ set is divided in half between Bernie’s Secaucus kitchen and Mags’ Sheffield study, with subtle lighting by Jill Nagle and sound design by Nick Simone. David Woolard’s costuming helps define both women at different stages of their lives.

Pen Pals is a celebration of two everyday lives over half a century. It captures the creation of an unlikely friendship, capturing the alchemy that binds two people to each other in deep, mysterious ways. It is a beautiful and satisfying evening in the theater. I cannot more strongly encourage you to make the trip to Long Branch to see the story of two Pen Pals before its all-too-brief run has to end.

Pen Pals is presented by the New Jersey Repertory Company at the Lumia Theatre in Long Branch through Oct. 20, 2024. For more information, or to purchase tickets, go to njrep.org or call 732-229-3167.