The Barn Theatre, Southwick Community Centre
February 5, 6, 7 & 8, 2003
Talking Heads
by Alan Bennett
Directed by
Simon Birks and Bob Ryder
Cast
Derek Watts – performed ‘A Chip in the Sugar’
Sheelagh Baker – performed ‘Soldiering On’
Patricia Lyne – performed ‘Bed Among the Lentils’
Production Crew
Lighting Design – Mike Medway
Sound Design – Simon Snelling
Technical Manager – John Garland
Stage Manager – Judith Berrill
Technician – Chris Grey
Front of House Co-ordinator – Betty Dawes
Box Office – Margaret Murrell
Publicity – Rosemary Bouchy
Publicity – Rosemary Brown
Publicity #1: Talking Heads
Publication: The Advertiser
Publication Data: January 29 2003 issue – page 29
Text Header: Talking Heads make it to the stage
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Publicity #1: Talking Heads
Publication: WEST SUSSEX GAZETTE
Publication Data: January 30 2003 issue – page 14
Text Header: Bennett monologues for Wick
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Publicity #1: Talking Heads
Publication: Shoreham Herald
Publication Data: January 30 2003 issue – Leisure Scene section – page 4
Text Header: TV classics are brought to life by Wick
Sub Header: Alan Bennett’s Talking Head come to the Barn
Text: Content
A TRIO of mesmerising monologues by Alan Bennett is the latest offering from the award-winning Wick Theatre Company.
These three “Talking Heads” are from his acclaimed plays for TV, now modern-day classics.
The stories are touching and real, but with a sense of comedy.
“A Chip in the Sugar” is about Graham, middle-aged and living devotedly with his ‘mam’. Then Mr Turnbull, a surprise name form the past, appears on the scene. Mother’s life takes an entirely new turn, much to Graham’s agitation.
“Soldiering On” features Muriel, a resourceful lady learning to live without her husband and gradually realising that her fortune is slipping into the hands of a reckless son.
“Bed Among the Lentils” is the story of Susan, a vicar’s wife who is rather too fond of the sherry. In fact even the communion wine isn’t safe. Husband Geoffrey and his earnest followers at the church seem not to notice. But then Susan, in search of supplies, finds a new friend.
The three pieces will be performed in Wick’s popular studio setting by three experienced local actors, all of whom have joined the Wick acting team during the last year. Derek Watts and Sheelagh Baker, both new to the Barn stage, will play Graham and Muriel in the first two plays. The part of Susan, the vicar’s wife, is played by Patricia Lyne, who recently made her Barn debut as Evelyn in “Kindertransport.
Performances are from Wednesday, February 5, to Saturday, February 8, at the Barn Theatre, Southwick Community Centre, Southwick Street, Southwick, at 7.45pm.
Tickets are £5 from the box office on 01273 597094.
This promises to be a real treat for theatre lovers, as these well-loved TV pieces are brought live to the stage.
Review #1: Talking Heads
Publication: Shoreham Herald
Publication Data: Unknown
Reviewer: Stephen Critchett
Text Header: “It’s the talk of the town”
Text sub header: “Bennett classics go down a storm”
Text: Content
TOUCHING and titillating in equal measure, Wick Theatre Company’s production of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads kept the audience riveted from start to finish.
And that was no man feat, as the three performers in the monologues – all new to Wick but with a wealth of experience – ensured onlookers never tired of their tales of love and loss at the Barn Theatre, Southwick.
The plays, roughly 40 minutes each, consisted of the actor/actress talking direct to the audience about their character’s life. Broken up by use of short bursts of music and changes in position, we learnt more and more about the characters under the spotlight as they told us their tales.
The closer-than-usual proximity of the stage area to the audience added to the intimacy of the occasion and made you feel the characters were talking direct to you.
The first of the monologues, A Chip in the Sugar, featured Graham Whittaker, a middle-aged man still living with his dotty, 72-year-old mother. Graham [played by Derek Watts], obviously a bit of a mummy’s boy, grows concerned when his mother meets an old friend “pre-dad[!]” near the war memorial. His worries increase when his mum announces she plans to marry semi-retired Frank.
Vera’s increasing number of trips out with Mr Turnbull leave Graham at home alone and feeling vulnerable. Then, one night, while his mum is out, Mr Turnbull’s daughter knocks on the door and reveals he is still married. A shocked, yet relieved Graham breaks the news to his mum, who dumps Mr Turnbull. Derek Watts was entirely convincing and amusing as the doting son and held the audience’s attention well.
Next up was Soldiering On, with Sheelagh Baker in the rôle of Muriel, a well-to-do newly-widowed pillar of the community. Essentially a study of bereavement and its knock on effects, Soldiering On began with Muriel putting on a brave face and recalling her late husband Ralph’s funeral. But then, through a combination of, we gather, bad financial decisions, Muriel loses pretty much everything and gets to the stage where she is thought to need Meals on Wheels [the very thought!.]
Her descent from riches to [nearly] rags was tenderly portrayed by Sheelagh, whose character always kept her stiff upper lip, even if she was, at times, despairing. “None of this would have happened if he hadn’t died,” she said.
In the last of the three plays, Bed Among the Lentils, Patricia Lyne played boozy vicar’s wife Susan. Susan proved to be the antithesis of what we were expecting, carrying on with a local Indian shopkeeper in secret liaisons next to back of lentils at the back of the store. Patricia’s performance of the woman tired of keeping up appearances, whether it be for a visiting bishop or at church as the dutiful wife, created much hilarity – and the stain glass spotlight was a nice effect. Her drinking gets out of hand, and soon the communion wine ”goes missing”; and, to the audience’s delight, is replaced with cough mixture. But all good things must come to and end, and, as Mr Ramesh moves away, Susan goes to Alcoholics Anonymous, which, she said, was just a different type of church.
Talking Heads certainly lived up to its billing as a real treat for theatre lovers.
Review #2: Talking Heads
Publication: Brighton Argus
Publication Data: Unknown
Reviewer: Barrie Jerram
Text Header: Unknown
Text: Content
The choice of staging Alan Bennett’s monologues raised the question of how they would transfer from television, the medium for which they had been written, to live theatre. Would three solo performances hold an audience’s attention without the benefit of close-up and variety of camera angles? Such fears proved unfounded. The quality of the writing together with the high standard of sensitive acting from Derek Watts, Sheelagh Baker and Patricia Lyne, had the audience gripped throughout the evening.
Credit must also go to Bob Ryder and Simon Birks for their direction that avoided the temptation to open the monologues with excessive movement and break the concentration on Bennett’s superb text. Moving the character’s location for each time change was all that was needed to give a little variety.
A Chip in the Sugar explored the relationship between Graham and his elderly mother and the shift in dependency between them with the arrival of the mother’s old flame into their well-ordered lives. Graham’s story, along with those in the subsequent monologues, moved at a gentle pace with vital bits of information being revealed through subtle, almost throwaway lines.
The mother and son theme was continued in Soldiering On where the recently widowed Muriel is exploited by her son, whose mishandling of her finances leads to a drastic reduction in her standard of living. She is seen coming to terms not only with this, but also with her loss of a husband, both physically and emotionally as she becomes aware that his abuse of their daughter was the cause of her breakdown.
Whilst all the characters in the monologues are sad people, the writing provides much comedy. None more so than in Bed Among The Lentils, the tale of a vicar’s alcoholic wife who finds sexual solace from her drab life, in the back room of an Indian corner shop. Susan’s account of flower arranging after downing a bottle of communion wine was hilarious.
Review #3: Ciphers
Publication: Words & Music
Publication Data: No.104 May/June 2003 – page 8
Reviewer: Gordon Bull
Text Header: To challenge the Almighty
Text: Content
One might think that Talking Heads is a bodiless experience in outer space. In a sense, originally produced for a TV audience, that’s not so far out. The warm atmosphere of The Barn provided an intimate module whwre just three chairs were provided for each head to drift to its destination.
Less of a monologue, more of a soliloquy, each head relates its own experience. Derek Watts’ ‘A Chip in the Sugar‘ gave a droll account of steering his elderly mother through her sheltered life with its time-worn epithets, which was masterful. We felt for them both.
Sheelagh Baker was totally involved as she fought her way through life in ‘Soldiering On‘, though a pause or two at the outset might have been a little more helpful.
The piece-de-resistance was ‘Bed Amongn the Lentils‘, and Patricia Lyne brilliantly gave it her all. Every vicar’s wife must suffer the slings and arrows, and this one no less. Cliches galore tumbled through with great humour as we saw the poor woman driven to drink and an Asian backroom boy as she and her husband tried to keep their ends up in true Christian fashion.
Oh, dear. To challenge the Almighty, as does Alan Bennett in this play, you would suspect would bring the heavens down. Makes you think! it certainly brought the house down.
Watch this space.
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