Talking Heads – Her Big Chance/Lady of Letters/Bed Among the Lentils

A series of monologues, funny and poignant, normally from two to four of these would be performed at a time. A Cream Cracker Under The Settee tells of an old woman who has a fall, but her pride doesn’t allow her to accept help. Bed Among the Lentils tells of a woman with a drink problem, married to a vicar who exploits her recovery actually caused by an affair with an Indian shopkeeper. A Lady of Letters is the story of a woman obsessed with writing letters of complaint and reporting her neighbours who eventually finds comfort in prison. Soldiering On is the tale of a well-to-do woman who finds one day that she’s a widow and her husband has left her ill equipped to handle her own affairs – and her son loses her money in bad investments.

Alan Bennett’s acute observations of the interior lives of his characters: Lesley, the clueless bit-part actress in ‘Her Big Chance’, Irene, the lonely writer of poison pen letters, ever watchful behind lace curtains in ‘Lady of Letters’ and Susan, the alcoholic wife of a vicar, locked in combat with the ladies of the flower arranging society while forming an attachment to a local grocer in ‘Bed Among the Lentils’ are both hilarious and poignant.