Talking Heads

A New Vic production

by Alan Bennett, directed by Gwenda Hughes

Three of Alan Bennett’s hilarious and heartbreaking monologues directed by Gwenda Hughes. These unforgettable portraits of quirky, often vulnerable, sometimes awkward, but always very English characters marked Bennett as one of the great writers of his generation.

Middle-aged Graham in A Chip in the Sugar finds life with his mother threatened by the appearance of an old flame. Curtain-twitching Irene in a Lady of Letters is always eager to speak (or rather, write) her mind. And in A Cream Cracker Under the Settee, an obsession with housework leads to Doris’ downfall.

Darkly comic, poignant and uplifting, Talking heads are widely acknowledged as modern classics. Bennett’s great achievement is to get under the skin of his characters and bring them vividly to life with remarkable understanding, compassion and bittersweet humour.