A Tale of Two Women: Alan Bennett's Talking Heads

The Sydney debut of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads from W Theatre is a tale of two women. Directed by Diana Volpe and starring Sophie Dillman (Lesley) and Fiona Gordon (Rosemary), the play blends two of Bennett's Talking Heads monologues — 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' (1998) and 'Her Big Chance' (1988) — into a performance staged in Woollahra Library that oscillates between dry wit and striking tenderness.

Reviewed by Hope Pratt.

The Sydney debut of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads from W Theatre, is a tale of two women. Directed by Diana Volpe and starring Sophie Dillman (Lesley) and Fiona Gordon (Rosemary), the play blends two of Bennett's Talking Heads monologues — 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' (1998) and 'Her Big Chance' (1988), which aired as part of the original BBC miniseries — into a performance that oscillates between dry wit and striking tenderness.

It is also a story about place. Staged in Woollahra Library, there is an unassuming but immersive quality to the setting. The audience sits up and down the forum steps, and in the few rows of seats at its foot, but remains surrounded by the ordinary trappings of the local library. The bookshelves haven't been moved; there has been no attempt to hide the large wall of climbing plants or the children's nook that sits to the right of the entertainment space.

There is an openness to the area that is drenched in the warm after-hour glow of the library's first floor. This peacefulness, and stillness, is aided by Michael Atherton's musical accompaniment for the night. Every string plucked and wind chime gently tapped resonates throughout the building. The only thing out of the ordinary are the two armchairs and side tables facing the audience. But even then, these props feel as though they could be, if they really wanted to, a permanent fixture of the space. It all feels quite ordinary, until Fiona Gordon enters as Rosemary, from 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' (1998), and says, "Nobody normally gets killed round here," and everything starts to feel real.

Rosemary: gentleness and the wry British tone

Rosemary is a lonely housewife, obsessed with gardening, and married to a condescending man named Henry. When her neighbour, Fran, murders her abusive husband, Rosemary becomes swept up in the trial. She tends to Fran's garden, visits her without Henry knowing, and along the way forms an intimate bond with her; one that begins to eclipse her marriage and bring a fullness to her life she has lacked up until this point.

"I've never had a best friend, the sort you can tell everything to. Never had one, never been one, even when I was a girl."

Gordon's ability to balance gentleness with the wry British tone of the dialogue is what makes her portrayal of Rosemary so convincing. Her movements around the space are delicate and contemplative in the beginning. She holds her hand to her mouth as she examines which gardening book to choose. Her purse is clutched in her hands as she perches on one of the chairs and tells us about her neighbour drama. As she grows closer with Fran, she opens up; her shoulders are looser and she smiles more. These subtleties make the revelation that Henry was a participant in Fran's sexual abuse all the more devastating.

Lesley: earnest, naive, and completely self-assured

The heaviness of Rosemary's story is contrasted superbly with Sophie Dillman's reprisal of Lesley, from 'Her Big Chance' (1988). "I shot a man last week," she opens her monologue with, strutting on the stage with a cock-sure grin. It's a bold opening on its own, but paired with the previous scene's murder plot, it strikes at the right nerve.

Earnest, naive, and completely self-assured, Lesley informs us that her dreams of stardom are imminent after landing a role in a German arthouse film. A film she fails to realise is actually a soft-core adult movie. This lack of awareness follows Lesley as she navigates life on set and recounts exploitative encounters she has that are undercut by her passion and overt optimism. She explains to us that, no matter what production she is a part of, "I must, must, must be involved to the hilt."

She's charming, a little self-involved, and has moments of almost understanding her predicament before pulling back into the overt optimism that will be her downfall. You want to shake her at moments and say, "don't you see what's happening?"

All at once tragic and comical, the push and pull between these two tones is found in the sincerity that Dillman brings to Lesley. There is a certain Aussie flair that she adds to Lesley that compliments Bennett's writing well. She makes you want to face palm in one breath, then shake her to her senses in the next. It's not hard to see why Dillman is reprising the role from W Theatre's original London 2024 production.

A conversation with a stranger

In the end, both stories end on a bittersweet note. Lesley's film wraps. She wakes up from sleeping with the Director, Gunther, and finds everyone else has left. Fran dies in prison, and the brief reprieve Rosemary found in their relationship goes with her. She is stuck exactly where she was at the start, just more embittered.

"I sit here at night, listening to the frogs and the crickets, and Henry, whistling under his breath," is the final line we are left with.

What makes Alan Bennett's Talking Heads work so well is the relationship between the library and the two leads. Both Gordon and Dillman don't so much command the library, but embody their respective characters so fully, it is hard to see the library as anything but a part of the interiority of their stories. While their performances and characters contrast sharply with one another, the ebb and flow between scenes, punctuated by Atherton's musical interludes, is where their respective humour and heartbreak find a common ground.

What comes from this is a conversation, one you might have with a stranger — on a bus, at a cafe, in a library — where they are bursting with something to say and have nowhere to put it, other than to offer it to you. However brief these interactions may be, however eccentric or ordinary, there is a beauty in sharing our lives with one another. Charming, witty, and compassionate, Alan Bennett's Talking Heads hits the mark.

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads — a W Theatre production blending 'Nights in the Gardens of Spain' and 'Her Big Chance'. Woollahra Library, Sydney.

Director: Diana Volpe
Rosemary: Fiona Gordon
Lesley: Sophie Dillman
Musical accompaniment: Michael Atherton
Producer: W Theatre

Reviewed by Hope Pratt.