Talking Heads (play)

Talking Heads
Written by	Alan Bennett
Date premiered	The Chichester Festival Theatre, UK, 1991 New Version : Minetta Lane Theatre, NY, April 6, 2003
Original language	English

The Chichester Festival Theatre, UK, 1991

Talking Heads is a stage adaptation of the BBC series of the same title created by Alan Bennett. It consists of six monologues presented in alternating programs of three each.

Antiques dealer Celia cultivates friendships with her aging neighbours 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Various incarnations of the original BBC television series found their way to the stage, including adaptations produced for the Chichester Festival Theatre in 1991, in the West End in 1992 and 1998, St. Martin's in Lancaster in 1994 and at the Tiffany Theater in Los Angeles in 2002.

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