Talking Heads
Bridge Theatre, London

Alan Bennett, an historian as well as a playwright, must be tickled at having, in his 87th year, become a sort of Restoration Dramatist. “The Shrine”, one of two new additions to the BBC’s revivals of his Talking Heads (1988-98) sequence of monologues, was shown earlier this summer as part of the broadcaster’s first new drama project in lockdown.

Now, the piece becomes the second new post-Covid drama (after Sir David Hare’s Beat the Devil, reviewed 12 September) to be staged at the Bridge Theatre in London since live performances were restored there.
The eight Talking Heads in repertory at the Bridge, in four groups of two, were all performed on TV by the same actors this summer, so some might fear the experience is second-hand. No, it’s first-rate.

The directors (including Nicholas Hytner, Jonathan Kent, and Nadia Fall) have rethought the form to take advantage of live playing. There is also a thrill in seeing great acting happening without an intervening TV screen, even at a social distance. Attendance is also a gesture of faith in an artform that seriously faces collapse, although the now routine pre-entry prologue of fever gun, hand gel, and seats as far apart as at a body odour clinic can only be a short-term solution.