Talking Heads (play)
Encyclopedia
Talking Heads is a stage adaptation of the BBC
series of the same title created by Alan Bennett
. It consists of six monologue
s presented in alternating programs of three each.
Antiques dealer Celia cultivates friendships with her aging neighbors in the hope she will be able to get a good deal on their treasures when they die. She is particularly pleased to sell an odd sketch of a finger for £100, only to discover it was a lost Michelangelo
masterpiece, a study of the central image of the hand of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
worth millions.
A Lady of Letters
In an effort to remedy the social ills surrounding her, Irene Ruddock compulsively writes letters of protests and complaints to everyone she can, including her MP
, the police, and her local chemist.
Bed Among the Lentils
Susan, the alcoholic wife of a vainly insensitive vicar
, distracts herself from her marriage by conducting an affair with grocer Ramesh Ramesh.
After appearing in a series of small, unimportant roles, aspiring actress Lesley is thrilled to be cast by a West German filmmaker, until she discovers she will be appearing in soft pornography
.
A Chip in the Sugar
Graham, a closeted
middle-aged man with a history of mild mental health problems, finds his life upended when his aging widowed mother, on whom he dotes, is reunited with an old flame who is his exact opposite. When he unearths a secret about the man's past, he triumphantly confronts his mother with the information and restores the status quo
and his comfortable life but destroys her chance of happiness in the process.
Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet
A lonely, middle-aged department store clerk finds her life consumed with a burgeoning relationship with her new podiatrist
, a decidedly kinky fellow whose all-consuming foot fetish
prompts him to pay her to model a variety of shoes while also indulging in other activities.
in 1992 and 1998 and at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles
in 2002.
Staged by Michael Engler
, the off-Broadway
production opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village
on April 6, 2003 and ran until September 7. The opening night casts included Brenda Wehle as Celia, Christine Ebersole
as Irene, Kathleen Chalfant
as Susan, Valerie Mahaffey as Leslie, Daniel Davis
as Graham, and Lynn Redgrave
as Miss Fozzard.
, Ben Brantley
noted the play "is not an unqualified success. Presented in two programs of three monologues apiece, Talking Heads provides two perfectly pleasant evenings of civilized entertainment. But . . . it's impossible not to feel that something precious has been lost in the trans-Atlantic translation. This is largely because no one does repression - and its first cousin, denial - like the English . . . the Talking Heads monologues are quiet, exquisitely modulated and veddy, veddy English exercises in dramatic irony. Raise the speakers' voices, literally or figuratively, and you risk turning them from sly character studies into comic gargoyle
s . . . Though each of the monologues holds your attention, it often seem as if the characters are being impersonated instead of incarnated. This means that while the jokes almost always go over, they can feel like cartoon captions instead of involuntary hiccups of personality. Then, of course, there's the matter of making speeches stageworthy that were devised for the confessional privacy of a television camera."
In their reviews for CurtainUp, Jerry Weinstein observed, "While there's nothing to prevent a contemporary staging of these plays, they have a decidedly 1950s postwar frisson," and Les Gutman called it "a very polished and satisfying evening of theater" and added, "There's more than a little irony in the snideness with which Bennett relates these stories. One can only wonder if, like many of his subjects, he's oblivious to it."
and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play
. The entire cast won the Obie Award
for Outstanding Performance, and Lynn Redgrave won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
.
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series of the same title created by Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
. It consists of six monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
s presented in alternating programs of three each.
Program A
The Hand of GodAntiques dealer Celia cultivates friendships with her aging neighbors in the hope she will be able to get a good deal on their treasures when they die. She is particularly pleased to sell an odd sketch of a finger for £100, only to discover it was a lost Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
masterpiece, a study of the central image of the hand of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...
worth millions.
A Lady of Letters
In an effort to remedy the social ills surrounding her, Irene Ruddock compulsively writes letters of protests and complaints to everyone she can, including her MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, the police, and her local chemist.
Bed Among the Lentils
Susan, the alcoholic wife of a vainly insensitive vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
, distracts herself from her marriage by conducting an affair with grocer Ramesh Ramesh.
Program B
Her Big ChanceAfter appearing in a series of small, unimportant roles, aspiring actress Lesley is thrilled to be cast by a West German filmmaker, until she discovers she will be appearing in soft pornography
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
.
A Chip in the Sugar
Graham, a closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
middle-aged man with a history of mild mental health problems, finds his life upended when his aging widowed mother, on whom he dotes, is reunited with an old flame who is his exact opposite. When he unearths a secret about the man's past, he triumphantly confronts his mother with the information and restores the status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
and his comfortable life but destroys her chance of happiness in the process.
Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet
A lonely, middle-aged department store clerk finds her life consumed with a burgeoning relationship with her new podiatrist
Podiatry
Podiatry is a branch of medicine devoted to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle, and lower leg. The term podiatry came into use first in the early 20th century United States, where it now denotes a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine , a specialist who is qualified by their...
, a decidedly kinky fellow whose all-consuming foot fetish
Foot fetishism
Foot fetishism, foot partialism, foot worship, or podophilia is a pronounced sexual interest in feet. It is the most common form of sexual preference for otherwise non-sexual objects or body parts.-Characteristics:...
prompts him to pay her to model a variety of shoes while also indulging in other activities.
Productions
Various incarnations of the original BBC television series found their way to the stage, including adaptations produced in the West EndWest End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
in 1992 and 1998 and at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 2002.
Staged by Michael Engler
Michael Engler
Michael Engler is an American theatre director, and television director and producer. His Broadway credits include Eastern Standard and I Hate Hamlet...
, the off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
production opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
on April 6, 2003 and ran until September 7. The opening night casts included Brenda Wehle as Celia, Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole
Christine Ebersole is an American actress and singer.-Early life:Ebersole was born in Winnetka, Illinois, where she attended New Trier High School...
as Irene, Kathleen Chalfant
Kathleen Chalfant
-Life and career:Chalfant was born as in San Francisco, California and raised in her parents' boarding house in Oakland. Her father, William Bishop, was an officer in the Coast Guard...
as Susan, Valerie Mahaffey as Leslie, Daniel Davis
Daniel Davis
Daniel Davis is an American stage, screen, and television actor best known for portraying Niles the butler on the popular sitcom The Nanny and his guest appearances as Professor Moriarty on Star Trek: The Next Generation, affecting an upper class English accent for both roles.-Biography:Davis was...
as Graham, and Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
as Miss Fozzard.
Critical reception
In his review in The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Ben Brantley
Ben Brantley
Benjamin D. "Ben" Brantley is an American journalist and the chief theater critic of The New York Times.-Life and career:...
noted the play "is not an unqualified success. Presented in two programs of three monologues apiece, Talking Heads provides two perfectly pleasant evenings of civilized entertainment. But . . . it's impossible not to feel that something precious has been lost in the trans-Atlantic translation. This is largely because no one does repression - and its first cousin, denial - like the English . . . the Talking Heads monologues are quiet, exquisitely modulated and veddy, veddy English exercises in dramatic irony. Raise the speakers' voices, literally or figuratively, and you risk turning them from sly character studies into comic gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
s . . . Though each of the monologues holds your attention, it often seem as if the characters are being impersonated instead of incarnated. This means that while the jokes almost always go over, they can feel like cartoon captions instead of involuntary hiccups of personality. Then, of course, there's the matter of making speeches stageworthy that were devised for the confessional privacy of a television camera."
In their reviews for CurtainUp, Jerry Weinstein observed, "While there's nothing to prevent a contemporary staging of these plays, they have a decidedly 1950s postwar frisson," and Les Gutman called it "a very polished and satisfying evening of theater" and added, "There's more than a little irony in the snideness with which Bennett relates these stories. One can only wonder if, like many of his subjects, he's oblivious to it."
Awards and nominations
Alan Bennett won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign PlayNew York Drama Critics' Circle
The New York Drama Critics' Circle is made up of 24 drama critics from daily newspapers, magazines and wire services based in the New York City metropolitan area. The organization was founded in 1935 at the Algonquin Hotel by a group that included Brooks Atkinson, Walter Winchell, and Robert Benchley...
and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
This is a list of winners of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play initially introduced in 1955 as the Vernon Rice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatre.-1950s:Vernon Rice Award for Best Production...
and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Play
Outer Critics Circle Award
The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on and Off-Broadway and were begun during the 1949-1950 theater season. The awards are decided upon by theater critics who review for out-of-town newspapers, national publications, and other media outlets...
. The entire cast won the Obie Award
Obie Award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards given by The Village Voice newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City...
for Outstanding Performance, and Lynn Redgrave won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play
The Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play was first awarded at the 1974-1975 Drama Desk Awards and has been awarded every year since...
.