Talking Heads II

The Athenaeum Masqueraders originally performed three pieces from Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads back in 2017, which it was my pleasure to both attend and report upon. After several delays, not least the global pandemic, it is great to see them take on the next three from the original series – ‘Her Big Chance’, ‘A Cream Cracker Under the Settee’ and ‘Soldiering On’. I deliberately didn’t check who the original performers in the TV Series were as I didn’t want this to influence what I saw.

The Athenaeum Masqueraders and Director Jacky Page rose to this challenge again very successfully.  The ‘black box’ set was understandably reprised, with a central armchair and then a careful selection of other well set-out domestic areas – a settee and door stage right, telephone and canvas chair stage left, from which the characters addressed the audience. There was a slight set change for Act 2 and the clever use of a central flat to allow the character of Muriel to change behind when in-between scenes. Well-cued and effective lighting managed all these areas and the action well, transitioning to each one with working lights and well-chosen incidental music. The music was different for each character and supporting events on stage in the breaks, keeping suspense but also allowing time for reflection. My only staging observation was the position of the Prompt. Without eye contact with the actor and/or a code word, the actor had to turn their head away from the audience and into the wings to make a request and then hear the prompted line. This made everyone both on and off-stage a little anxious.

Properties all seemed appropriate for the period. Both costumes and make-up were excellent in transforming the actors into the thoroughly believable characters they became.

As an actor too myself, I can think of little more terrifying than a 30 minute monologue alone to an audience. My immediate congratulations to all three for taking it up.

Lesley opened the performance with real confidence as the gullible and self-deluded Actress in  ‘Her Big Chance’. She really captured the audience’s attention from the start with the intrigue following her projection of “I shot a man in the back last week”. Delivery and accent were well-maintained throughout, developing the comedy and pathos in the part to ensure the audience were fully engaged. You could tell how strong this was with the murmurings from the audience when they realised themselves what was really going on and how Lesley was being manipulated. One minor point – when something does go wrong on stage  (and it will – this is live Theatre after all) do try and stay in character if you possibly can as most of the audience won’t even notice something is going on if you can manage this. Regardless of this, we believed, understood and sympathised with the character you built. I think one of Lesley’s last lines is ”Acting is Giving” and you certainly did that – very, very well done!

Doris is the widow living alone, who refuses to relinquish her independence in ‘A Cream Cracker Under the Settee’. She put in an excellent performance in both her delivery and physicality of this role. As with the two sides of all Alan Bennett characters in this series, she was able to portray both the humour - mainly in Doris’s relationship with her home-help (“Home help? home hinderance more like!”) as well as the loneliness and sadness of her situation. The fine storytelling from the actress also allowed the audience to discover this is not only from living alone after the passing of her husband, Wilfred but we also learn of the loss of their child and the recent fall that prevents her from getting help. It was this that really caused the audience to palpably gasp when she actually declines the help she has been looking for when it arrives through fear of what will happen to her when she cannot control her own destiny. A  very impressive performance.

The last performance created a thoroughly believable Muriel in ‘Soldiering On’ as the Military Wife adapting to life after the recent passing of her husband. The actress had the look, the stance and the voice of the character from the very beginning and the maintenance of this throughout created such a realistic and memorable performance.  The audience’s sympathies were immediately with the character as we realised before she did that all is not well beneath what we are being told by such a stoic and community-focussed figure as Muriel faces the challenges of her mentally ill daughter and manipulative son. The quality of her performance ensured the audience were always on her side and so there was a real sense of relief when the play was able to finish on an optimistic note.  An excellent performance too.

In summary, this was another well-observed and well put-together production – making it a thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking evening from what is effectively just the separate voice of three characters. Well done to the Athenaeum Masqueraders and Jacky Page for completing this piece of arguably Alan Bennett’s finest work. Now I’ve written the report, I’ve just checked who the three original actresses were of these parts in the TV production - Julie Walters, Thora Hird and Stephanie Cole respectively. Three of our finest actresses and I’m sure they would have been proud of themselves to put these parts across as well as the three did here and also with each bringing to the parts their  own voice and style.

Thank you to everyone involved on a great production and for the hospitality extended to me. I look forward to your future productions.

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