Players take on Alan Bennett
Classictalking Heads pieces to be performed
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Following on from their hugely successful large-scale Panto in December, Birnam Institute Players (BIPS) have gone from the ridiculous to the sublime.
The next production will be “fascinating and mundane”, three unexpected and unembellished personal stories told quietly, with the audience seated close by the speakers.
The players take on the Alan Bennett classic Talking Heads, enjoyed by millions when it was dramatised for television.
Birnam Arts presents three of the engaging monologues on April 27 and 28 at 7pm and a further performance takes place on Saturday, April 29 with a 2pm matinée.
BIPS’ intimate performances of Bed Among the Lentils, A Chip in the Sugar and Her Big Chance for the most part come down from the stage into the semi-round, up close with the audience in an intimacy fitting for such personal life stories.
These hugely successful, BAFTA awardwinning, dramatic masterpieces from the legendary pen of playwright Bennett (Lady In the Van, The History Boys) slide their characters’ lives under the microscope.
First hitting the small screen in the 1988 TV series written for BBC then a second series in 1998, in 2020 the BBC recreated 10 of the existing episodes, with a new set of actors.
The three monologues presented by BIPS were originally performed by stellar actors such as Maggie Smith, Julie Walters and, of course, Alan Bennett himself, then wonderfully reprised in 2020 by Martin Freeman, Jodie Comer and Lesley Manville.
In Her Big Chance, audiences meet Lesley, an actress taking whatever opportunities she can to make her name. From Crossroads to, currently, a video ‘targeted chiefly on West Germany’ in which she plays Travis, a career girl, who strangely spends a remarkable amount of time topless. Taking on the challenge of learning this lengthy solo script is Georgia Brockway, who has been with BIPS for four years.
Georgia said: “On the surface Lesley seems quite naive, almost ignorant to the manipulations of the men around her. And yet, between the lines you discover a woman who has a firm sense of her own self-worth, a determination to survive and ‘make it’ in this masculine-dominated industry of film and television, especially in the pre-‘me Too’ 1980’s. Her adoration of Roman Polanski has particular resonance in retrospect.
“I love the subtleties and layers of Bennett’s characters: the chance to have fun with the duality of Lesley’s strength and fragility, the humour in the telling asides, and the sinister undertones of exploitation that make themselves felt, despite our narrator remaining, apparently, oblivious.”
A Chip in the Sugar brings middle-aged Graham, who finds life becoming complicated as his mother, Vera, with whom he still lives, reunites with an old flame. Graham becomes progressively disturbed when outspoken and right-wing Frank clashes with his muddled liberalism and Graham’s insecurities rear their ugly heads.
Taking on the character of Graham is John Pike, who said: “Graham is a challenging character to inhabit, he engages with the world differently but ultimately he is trying to do the right thing and wants to be loved.
“Just like many adults today, he has grown up in a world without the understanding of neurodivergence in the modern education system and so has found his own stability caring for his mother.
“His world begins to break down with the shock of potentially losing a dependent mother, and watching her grow in dominance.”
Finally, Melanie Brockway, who directed and produced the Birnam Arts Panto in December, becomes Susan in Bed Among the Lentils.
She said: “There’s definitely some black comedy to deliver but most captivating is the opportunity to get deep under the skin of another human life. It’s wonderfully immersive, if unnaturally scary to hold 14 pages of script in your head.”
Tickets are £10 for adults, £5 for under 16. Call 01350 727674 or see www.birnamarts.com