Some of the best friendships in the world have never involved a single face-to-face meeting. That's the quiet truth at the heart of Pen Pals, Michael Griffo's moving two-hander about Bernie from Newark and Mags from Sheffield — two girls who begin exchanging letters at age 14 in 1955 and keep writing to each other for the next fifty years. The play, inspired by Griffo's own mother and her real-life pen pal, spans a half century of secrets, joys, losses, and the kind of loyalty that doesn't require proximity.

Saint Augustine's own A Classic Theatre brought Pen Pals to The Waterworks on San Marco Avenue in March 2026, and the response said everything: two weekends, two standing ovations. Francesca Bellavista and Nancy Grote embodied Bernie and Mags with the ease of women who understood exactly what the play was asking of them. Director Grace Reed found all the warmth in the material without losing its weight.

A Classic Theatre has been quietly enriching Saint Augustine's cultural scene for years — a nonprofit company dedicated to classic, historic, and original works performed in intimate settings that let the storytelling do the work. Pen Pals was a perfect fit.

Event photos by Yvette Monell

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