Hummingbird Theatre Company presented two of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues at the Latvian Hall, Woolloongabba, for a limited season, starring Julia Johnson and Amanda McErlean and directed and designed by Rhys Becks.
The Talking Heads are a series of dramatic monologues written for BBC television in the late 1980s by British playwright Alan Bennett. There were two series of six monologues written and performed as part of the Talking Heads collection, and A Woman of No Importance was a standalone 1982 play and a predecessor to this series, although it is considered to fit within the canon. The BBC remade ten of the existing episodes in 2020, filmed during the COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as two brand new stories written by Bennett in 2019. The plays deal with recurring themes including death, illness, guilt, and isolation. I have not seen any of Bennett’s other monologues, but the language used in those chosen by Hummingbird Theatre Company, particularly when referring to people of colour, is reflective of their time and the class and outlook of the characters.
In A Lady of Letters, Julia Johnson played a self-righteous and anxious Irene Ruddock. Miss Ruddock writes letters about everything, from potholes to products and people in her neighbourhood, in an attempt to control and “fix” the world around her. Obviously lonely and increasingly paranoid, Miss Ruddock’s letter writing and the accusations within escalate until she is faced with serous consequences. However, in prison, she finds an unexpected camaraderie and community that she can joyfully participate in.
Following an interval, Amanda McErlean performed the role of Margaret Schofield in A Woman of No Importance, an office worker whose routine is interrupted by a sudden onset of bad health. Undeterred by hospitalisation, doctors, or impending surgery, Miss Schofield emulates her office environment in hospital, befriending the nurses and doing her best to be helpful and useful to them and to the other patients, as well as sharing gossip and making jokes. McErlean maintained a strong accent throughout the performance, and embodied her character’s positivity, confidence, and sociability.
Simple but effective sets designed by Rhys Becks created a clear environment for each character, from Miss Ruddock’s letter writing desk and the window frame she peered out of, to the hospital bed and armchair for Miss Schofield. The Latvian Hall stage is quite deep, but the space was used in interesting ways, and lighting designed and operated by Becks also created some impactful moments of emotion, such as the final scene of A Woman of No Importance.
Both monologues unfurled complex stories about the inner lives of ordinary women – illness, gossip, loneliness, the fundamental human desire for connection – and the two actors performed their thirty-minute monologues unfalteringly. While Miss Schofield and Miss Ruddock were not immediately likeable, they became endeared to the audience as the monologues progressed and more of their complexity was revealed.
Talking Heads was performed at the Latvian Hall, Woolloongabba, from 30 November – 2 December 2023
Backstreet Brisbane 
Leave a comment