When I went to see ‘Talking Heads’ at the Theatre Royal, at the time, I had no idea it was a series of dramatic monologues written by British playwright Alan Bennett, but this was all relayed to me by the lady who I was sitting next to as we awaited the start of the play.
As the curtain upped for act 1 or 3 to the sound of dreamy music, rather like the music which overlays the narration parts of the film ‘American Beauty’, if you can recall that, we beheld the scene of a middle-aged lady sat at a table in a cloudy-blue-sky coloured room of her house taking some tea and sorting through her post. The layout of the stage tapered backwards quickly to give the impression of depth to the room – a sort of optical illusion that worked to give the whole stage a sort of subtle, dreamlike surrealism. Immediately the working class character of act 1, Miss Irene Ruddock, who is excellently played by Siobhan Redmond, began to address us directly in beautifully elegant and purposeful English conversation (albeit a one-way conversation). Straight away I found myself being whisked-off along with the delightfully humorous but also tragic musings of this eccentric English lady regarding her dealings with differing members of British society such as her MP, the police, the chemist – and anyone she can contact to remedy the social ills she sees around her via the always and forever wonderfully romantic art of letter writing. The audience laughed out loud as Miss Ruddock explained her incredulity at the many postal spats she seemed to unavoidably find herself getting into. A particularly large laugh was reserved for her interactions with the Queen’s official responder to correspondence.
The same laughs were present for act 2, ‘A Chip in the Sugar’, in which Graham Whittaker played by Karl Theobald accounts his complicated life with his mother with whom he still lives and his increasing jealousy of Mr. Turnball who’s marriage proposal to his mother could spell the end of his time living in the house. Set in his bedroom while he sits on a chair and occasionally wandering over to the window to look through we hear of Graham’s unease at the prospect of having to potentially up heave the status-quo but also of his seemingly incapacity to halt the inevitable proceedings. Likewise in act 3 where Doris, an elderly lady played by Stephanie Cole lives on her own and attempts to get by without much help, whilst trying to avoid ending up in a care home. After a fall in her home while alone, a social anxiety we all share about our loved ones, Doris spies a ‘A Cream Cracker Under the Settee’ which sparks her imagination and memory off on another engaging and somewhat sorrowful monologue.
I enjoyed this play. The charming and well portrayed characters reminiscent of English life a few decades ago did justice to an intelligently crafted and relatable script. Apparently there are more chapters in the ‘Talkiing Heads’ series. I shall have to look them up.
Review by James Toomey
