Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads 1
Her Big Chance & A Cream Cracker Under the Settee
★★★★☆ Poignant
The Speakeasy at The Royal Scots Club (Venue 241a): Mon 10 – Sun 23 Aug 2026
Review by Juliette Johnstone.
This pair of quietly devastating dramatic monologues from Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads series, while written (and firmly rooted) in the 1980s, still stand up as tragicomic meditations on loneliness.
The television series from which these monologues are selected was broadcast on the BBC from 1988 and they show Alan Bennett’s genius for observation, as well as his empathy for certain types of humble British lives, lived without fanfare.
Amy Dallas as aspiring actress Lesley. Pic: The Next Act.
These were landmark solo performances with Julie Walters and Thora Hird taking on the original roles in these two monologues, Her Big Chance and A Cream Cracker Under the Settee. For The Next Act’s production, however, Amy Dallas’ performance of Lesley, an aspiring actress, and Helen Schofield’s rendering of Doris, an elderly widow, are not mere imitations, and certainly pack a punch of their own.
The room is set out with the audience around large round tables conjuring an intimate ‘dinner and a show’ atmosphere of bygone days with the help of candles on the tables.
First up is Her Big Chance. The small stage is dressed modestly to look like a young woman’s bedsit, with clothing and a few cosmetics dotted about and a recording of the wistful 1930s song ‘If I Had a Talking Picture of You’ plays.
earnest charm
Amy Dallas brings an earnest charm to tell the story of Lesley’s recent film shoot. Directed by Helen Schofield, she has great energy and comic timing, grasping Lesley’s desperation for dignity and connection in a world bent on devaluing her. Dallas’ Lesley is a relentlessly positive person, living in her dream world of being taken seriously as an artist, even as she is taken advantage of again and again. As the comedy increasingly makes way for pathos, Lesley’s bright energy wavers.
For the second monologue, ‘A Cream Cracker Under the Settee’ dramatic instrumental music from sound designer Wag Schofield introduces Doris, an older character, who shuffles onstage to sit painfully on a chair.
Helen Schofield as Doris. Pic: The Next Act
Doris is a crabby widow looked after once a week by an unsympathetic Home Help, but otherwise living completely alone, very recently injured from a fall and increasingly in need of help. Helen Schofield’s dour, drily humorous performance (directed by Amy Dallas) is poignantly underpinned by the character’s obvious loneliness and chronic boredom, and her growing awareness that she may be in mortal trouble. Schofield quietly shows us a woman on the edge of being a relic, choosing to relive her memories and recycle old gripes while stoically contemplating her end.
The cleverness of the scripts is such that the wider implications of each character’s predicament seem to dawn on them at the same time as it does the audience. These confessional-style monologues shine a light on the bravery of overlooked people, and serve as a reminder to be kinder to ourselves and each other.
NB: The Next Act Theatre Company is presenting two distinct Talking Heads shows.
In Talking Heads 2 Diane Waugh performs A Lady of Letters and Jen Ward takes on Bed Among the Lentils.
The Speakeasy, located in the rather grand Royal Scots Club, is a basement venue. Audience members with mobility issues should check in advance whether the lift is in operation; it was out of order on the night reviewed.
Running time: One hour and 10 minutes (with a five-minute pause).
Speakeasy at The Royal Scots Club (The Speakeasy), 29-31, Abercromby Place, EH3 6QE (Venue 241a).
Talking Heads 1
Her Big Chance & A Cream Cracker Under the Settee
Mon 10 – Wed 12; Thur 20/Fri 21, Sun 23 Aug 2026
Talking Heads 2:
A Lady of Letters & Bed Among the Lentils.
Thur 13 – Wed 19 August 2026
Daily (not Sat): 7.40pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Facebook: @The-Next-Act-
Instagram: @thenextact2026
ENDS
