In 1955, when they were both fourteen-year-old high-school students, Bernadette, from Newark, NJ, and Margaret, from Sheffield, England, began a correspondence, launched by their teachers, that would last nearly 50 years. On November 10, 2002, they reflect on the decades of letters between them and the value of their loving friendship in Pen Pals, now playing a limited Off-Broadway engagement, with a rotating cast, at the Theatre at St. Clement’s, following an acclaimed world premiere at NJ Repertory Company. Written by Michael Griffo with Gail Winar, inspired by and dedicated to real-life pen pals Jean Griffo (the playwright’s mother) and Sheila Bashforth, the intimate two-hander offers a moving tribute to the deep bond between two women who had never met in person or spoken on the phone, but shared all the ups and downs of their lives confidentially with each other and became closer to one another than to anyone else. Nancy McKeon and Johanna Day. Photo by Russ Rowland. Directed by SuzAnne Barabas (the Founding Artistic Director of NJ Rep, who also helmed the production there), the epistolary theme is presented in the format of Bernie and Mags holding their notebooks, which contain the letters they received and preserved from each other over the past half a century, as they reenact writing and reading them aloud. The detailed contents follow the paths of their development, from initially introducing themselves (Bernie, as everyone calls her, is from a large family, Mags, the nickname given to Margaret by her new American friend, is an only child with a collie named Queenie) and sharing the names of their favorite movie stars, books, and classes, their least favorite classmates, their talents and aspirations in theater (Bernie) and art (Mags), and exchanging photos, recipes, artworks, and programs, to their increasingly mature talk about boys, men, and sex, marriage, pregnancies, and children, jobs, illnesses, and loss. They don’t always agree, and there are some periods when their correspondence suffers as a result, but they eventually recognize how important they are to each other, reconcile, and continue to give their opinions and explanations, understanding, love, and support when needed most, and maintain a close relationship that spans the ocean and decades. It’s a story that is at times funny, other times conflicted, but always heartwarming and personal, with revelations that are fully human and relatable. Nancy McKeon. Photo by Russ Rowland. Nancy McKeon, who made her stage debut with Pen Pals in NJ, stars as the lively Bernie, with Johanna Day, new to the NYC cast, as the somewhat more reserved and conciliatory Mags, in everyday wear that is a bit more casual for the American and a bit more elegant for her British friend (with David C. Woolard serving as costume consultant). Both embrace the distinctive personalities and feelings of their characters, their native accents (dialect coaching by Joel Goldes), and the changing moods of their letters and lives, enhanced by shifts in lighting (by Jill Nagle) and the specific sounds of the events they share, from the school bell to their children (sound design by Nicholas Simone). Bernie describes the experiences she’s writing about with exuberance and dejection, laughter and tears (with McKeon largely off-book), and Mags continuously reads from her notebook as she transcribes her thoughts, at times joyful, at times crying, with the emotional states contained in the letters, their maturation over the years, and the unbreakable camaraderie between them made readily legible in the women’s facial expressions, body language, voices, and demeanors. Johanna Day. Photo by Russ Rowland. The set (by Jessica Parks) also distinguishes between the backgrounds, traditions, and tastes of the two, with a mid-century modern kitchen table and chair, oval hooked rug, metal step stool, and a vintage toaster, timer, table lamp, and more atop a light wood buffet in Bernie’s house at the left, and dark wood and upholstered antique style furnishings, a stained-glass floor lamp, oriental carpet, and a crystal bowl and porcelain cup in Mags’ home on the right. Barabas has them moving around their individual sides of the space, sitting and standing, sometimes exiting and re-entering, just enough to bring some natural action to the show without distracting from the oral review of their history of communication by mail, which makes us feel as if we know them and care about them, as we become privy to the high and low points of their journey. Among the significant female-centric issues addressed in the play are bouts with breast cancer, so the Off-Broadway production of Pen Pals is partnering with Susan G. Komen (whose mission is to save lives by investing in breakthrough research to aid in prevention and to find a cure) and will donate 5% of the total ticket sales and 100% of all donations collected to the non-profit foundation. If you go, and you should, you will be touched by the engaging story and compelling acting and will also provide support for this important cause. Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes, without intermission. Pen Pals plays through Sunday, February 9, 2025, at the Theatre at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46th Street, NYC. For tickets (priced at $30-118, plus fees), go online. The rotating cast schedule is as follows: December 5-22, 2024, and returning February 5-9, 2025 – Johanna Day and Nancy McKeon; December 26-29, 2024 – Catherine Curtin and Sharon Lawrence; January 2-12, 2025 – Nia Vardalos and another TBD; January 15-26, 2025 – Mary Beth Peil and another TBD; and January 29-February 2, 2025 – Kate Burton and Pauletta Washington.