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Talking Heads

Review

Sighs matter as much as words in meaningful monologues

Tempo and eye contact make the difference – the ability to vary the pace just enough to keep audiences guessing, and the confidence to make them watch as well as listen.

Both qualities are evident in the best performances in HumDrum AmDram’s fine, enterprising production of Alan Bennett’s original six monologues.

Gladys Wilcox is deeply moving in embodying Bennett’s compassion for old age and infirmity in A Cream Cracker Under The Settee.

Mike Palmer catches the wit, trauma and social nuances in the unsettling of a son’s relationship with his mother in A Chip In The Sugar.

And Natalie Caswell seizes Her Big Chance to expose the pretentiousness of the film world with a breathy, foot-wiggling tour-de-force.

But all six performers can time a comic pay-off and make a sigh speak. Lin Warner and Sheila Elsdon skilfully show the pain of isolation – one as the spinster who becomes the busybody Lady Of Letters, the other as the vicar’s wife who takes refuge in Bed Among The Lentils.

Janet Hillman tended to rush last night in Soldiering On and is really too young for the role, but hers also has the makings of a sharply observed performance.

The News (reproduced with permission)