Talking Heads (2025)

Talking Heads
[[File: |300px]] Talking Heads promotional image
Dates	14-15 February 2025
Venue	The Tower Theatre
Director	Robert Emptage
Producer	Julie Morrow

The Folkestone-Hythe Operatic and Dramatic Society presented Talking Heads by Alan Bennett on 14th - 15th February 2025 at The Tower Theatre, Folkestone. An amateur production by arrangement with Concord Theatricals Ltd on behalf of Samuel French Ltd.

Foreword

In 1988... Margaret Thatcher became the longest-serving UK Prime Minister, having been in power for eight years and 244 days. Comic Relief was launched The £1 note ceased to be legal tender The average house would set you back £60,000 (an increase of 17% on 1987) Section 28 was brought into law preventing local authorities from "promoting homosexuality" 80,000 people attended a concert at Wembley in honour of Nelson Mandela's birthday Edwina Currie provoked outrage by stating that most of Britain's egg production is infected with salmonella And the BBC aired a brand new TV series of dramatic monologues by British playwright Alan Bennett.

Talking Heads is a series of twelve mutli-award-winning monologues which were performed by an all-star cast to critical acclaim. Here we proudly present three.

Susan is an alcoholic vicar's wife, who discovers something about herself above a corner shop in leeds in Bed Among the Lentils. Graham who is middle-aged and still living with his mother, finds the stability of his world rocked when she meets a fancy man in embryo in A Chip in the Sugar. Finally in A Lady of Letters, a woman who is not afraid to speak her mind, puts pen to paper to address the social issues that she sees all around her.

Although 36 years have passed since Talking Heads were first performed, the characters and situations are just as relevant and recognisable today. Originally performed for the BBC by Patricia Routledge, Maggie Smith and Alan Bennett himself, we hope you enjoy our interpretation of the characters and the stories that they tell.

Robert Emptage, Director

Cast

• Claire Ellerby as Susan
• Anthony Leyton-Thomas as Graham
• Leigh Chambers as Miss Ruddock

Production Crew

• Director: Robert Emptage
• Producer: Julie Morrow
• Stage Manager: Michael Pearce
• Prompt: Tracey Carmen
• Props: Myra Collingridge
• Costume: Marion Emptage & Emma Franks
• Sound: Andy Hartley
• Lighting: Chris Willcox
• Set Design: Robert Emptage
• Set Build: Andy Hartley, Robert Emptage, Michael Pearce, Chris Willcox, Emil Jansen and Myra Collingridge
• Photography and Design: Julie Morrow
• FHODS Marketing: Merewyn Forrest
• Graphic Design/Media: Malcolm Laye

For The Tower Theatre

• Events Manager: Michelle Hartley
• Front of House Manager: Gary Ingoldby-Spate
• Theatre Technician: Emil Jansen
• Box Office / Admin: Ella Riley