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Review: Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads

Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads played at the 2024 Wanstead Fringe. Review by Camille Leadbeater.

City Place, Wanstead High Street, coffee shop, delicatessen, restaurant, bar, and now – a certified Fringe Venue! You may be wondering – how can it possibly also be a theatre? What about the tables and chairs? The deli? What about the baked goods? For a week and a bit over the course of the Wanstead Fringe Festival, City Place was the setting for Wanstead Theatre Co’s production of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads.

City Place is double fronted as you may know – having once indeed been two separate shops along the high street. As a result it has A LOT of spatial potential – there’s even a garden. For each performance, half the cafe is cleared to make room for a makeshift set consisting of three tables and three corresponding chairs. Against a wall, we have a sort of ‘thrust’ stage going on, with three rows of chairs flanking each side.

Given the nature of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads stories, the cosy and intimate atmosphere achieved by hosting the performances in an unassuming cafe venue is perfect and sets everything up nicely. The play comprises of three monologues told by three characters, one after the other they enter through the audience and relay their story. Only one actor on stage at any given time, each gets the chance to build up a unique relationship with their audience.

First to the stage is aspiring actress Lesley played by the wonderful Sophie Dillman, who tells us ‘the more you have as a person, the more you have as an actor… its about giving’. One fears, however, she gives too much. Pursuing a career in film, but spoilt from a momentary brush with fame experienced working with Roman Polanski on ‘Tess’, she is ever hopeful yet constantly overlooked. Dillman is a delight, capturing the plights of a young woman who is simply ’interested in interesting people’. We feel for her as she finds herself falling into exploitative situations.

Relating her conversations with those she’s working with on film sets, in casting, one can’t help but pity how she is so quick to forgiveness, brushing off their cruelty towards her with her bright attitude and playful manner.

Our second actress Clare Samuels, is antiques dealer Celia. Convinced by her husband that the secret to making money playing a game of “scrabble” – sell a lot, at a low price, as it all eventually adds up and “makes a fortune”. She is blindsided, however, into practically giving away a priceless work of art. A triumphant bit of acting here, Samuel’s serious and uber conservative nature captured to a tee. Despite her insistence on saving face, we see behind her eyes how this crushing blow is wearing away at her. From a slight twitch of the eye, a purse of the lips, or shaking hand holding a coffee cup, this is a masterful performance.

Finally, we meet Rosemary played by Fiona Gordon, nicknamed by the press “the real face of suburbia”. When her neighbour murders her husband, the two strike up a strange friendship, which leads Rosemary to begin to doubt her own constrained relationship with her husband. The actress presents a hilariously convincing buttoned-up suburban housewife, navigating a heinous situation with as much polite embarrassment as you’d expect.

Alan Bennett, Jonathan Coe, John Mortimer… British novelists who seem to just ‘get’ Middle England, with all its quirks and absurdities. Often ridiculed for its over-polite and over-apologetic attitudes, the veil of normality that covers this sector of society is often too-thin, a flimsy attempt to hide the fact that life is more commonly than not, rather unpredictable and downright ridiculous. Still, we beat on against the current, insisting on maintaining our manners and stiff upper lip and remaining ever-humble. Our desire to be genteel, however, makes us far from adept at navigating the chaos of what life throws our way. This is most wonderfully demonstrated in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, in which we are briefly allowed a glimpse into the private lives of three, seemingly ordinary women. The play reminds us that Britain, and British people, are always seeming to be just on the brink of something dramatic. Our own hang-ups and sensibilities, however, will never let us in on the action.

We, as the audience, are put in an interesting position of not quite involved, but certainly nosily interested. Whilst each character leads a rather mundane existence, there are subtle shocks. Each cast member relates their tale with a no-nonsense, stoicism. As a result, we can either laugh at them, or laugh at how much we relate to them. This is a well-crafted show, capturing our need to remain consciously controlled, no matter our inner turmoil. Through the actors mastery, we noticeeach giveaway – a small yelp, a strained smile or hard swallow. This is a wonderfully acted, fourth- wall-breaking showcase.

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