Talking Heads -Review by Jef Pirie 

Talking Heads, Teignmouth Players

Oh Joy! I’ve been banging on for years, saying that there should be more ‘variety drama’, ‘mosaic storytelling’, or otherwise known as ‘more than one play per evening’, and Teignmouth Players, known for their willingness to take chances, have come up with a cracker.

‘Talking Heads’ is a classic piece, written by the master of the form, Alan Bennett. Now, you would think that with a brilliantly written piece such as this, all you have to do is learn the lines and stand back and let the play do the work, but like all the best art, there is a tenderness here that could easily be lastly a heavy-handed director or non-empathetic actors. Here, though, director Bruce Sibley has been the invisible alchemist, so the settings, the movement and the performances have been beautifully managed, made to look easy, a great trick to pull off. On some evenings there are some changes of actors and I’ve been lucky enough to see both casts. All of them turned in fine performances, I haven’t seen such a consistently good standard in one cast for a long time.

I would even exhort my fellow am-dram theatre makers in South Devon to see this - it’s a standard to which we should all aspire. It’s funny and moving, subtle and accomplished.

Dan Wilkin as Graham Whittaker in ‘Chip in the Sugar’ manages the difficult trick of being impatient with his ageing mother and her choices, whilst somehow letting us know that he’d be lost without her.

Layla Crabtree as the letter writing nosy parker Irene Ruddock, in a ‘Lady of Letters’, rides the light and shade changes skilfully, and the character transforms before our eyes. Charlotte Ewart times her pauses to perfection, and marks the journey clearly.

Lesley, the character in ‘Her Big Chance’, is someone you might not readily warm to, she sometimes seems shallow and gratingly naïve, but Kate O’Connell makes us care for her, as she leads us to a conclusion that is convincingly surprising.

A Cream Cracker Under the Settee could easily be a difficult watch as Bennett has written the last character to be one who is the most physically challenged. Laura Wilson-Back has a gentle vulnerability that almost makes us want to help her, and Marilyn Adams finds the right level of courage and dignity in distress.

Go see - you WILL enjoy it.

Jef Pirie