Review: Talking Heads - Sheringham Little Theatre

Sheringham Little Theatre has staged a number of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads in recent years, but this was the first time I'd seen them performed on the main stage. And it proved a masterstroke, as the intimate setting remained intact, but with added context and atmosphere being created by a few choice set pieces and some simple lighting.

A few extra bells and whistles is all well and good, but of course being extended monologues, the pieces require actors with a certain gravitas to carry off the rather hefty material and hold our attention by themselves for the best part of an hour each. And in Sarah Westlake and Bev Taylor they had exactly that, both offering thoroughly convincing, natural, and high quality performances.

I'll start with A Cream Cracker Under the Settee which is about 70-something widow, Doris, who has a fall whilst dusting. Stuck on the settee whilst attempting to recover, Doris reminisces about her life, some heartache along the way, and her fear of ending up in a retirement home with old people that "stink of pee".

Sarah Westlake completely inhabited the character, with both an impeccably consistent Lancashire accent and acutely observed mannerisms.

Through some heartbreaking revelations, delivered with a gentle, devastating poignancy and a touch of wry humour by Westlake, we discover the reason Doris has become a rather fussy, dirt-obsessed woman over the years, and has ended up with no-one to help her following her fall.

There was an equally sad tale to be told in Bed Among the Lentils but with a sharper, more acerbic wit, allowing Bev Taylor a bit more fun along the way.

She portrayed Susan, a frustrated vicar's wife, who lacks faith in more ways than one, in an utterly compelling performance. Taylor's characterisation was superb, giving us a flavour of the familiar sounding parishioners, while also offering a beautiful performance of such vulnerability and resignation as her character succumbs to her vices, which inadvertently gives her husband's career a boost.

It was an absolute masterclass from these two fine actors, and a privilege for us as audience members to watch. Bravo!