Written by Alan Bennnett. Directed by Mat Howard. Featuring Dia Frid, Chantale Grouix and Nonnie Griffin. Presented by Alumnae Theatre. To Nov 29. Wed-Sat 8pm; Sun 2pm. $20 (Wed-Thu 2-for-1; Sun PWYC [cash only]). Alumnae Studio Theatre, 70 Berkeley. 416.364.4170.
www.alumnaetheatre.com.
In Talking Heads, Alumnae Theatre's second offering this season, the
issue is not that the play holds no comedic potential — some say Brit
Alan Bennett’s hit BBC-TV series paved the way for Monty Python's
Flying Circus — but that it misses the nuances that make this softly satirical send-up come alive.
Selected from the dozen original pieces that make up the full Talking Heads series, the three extended monologues chosen here feature, unsurprisingly, women’s stories. (Alumnae was founded in 1919 by U of T graduates in order to provide opportunities for women in the theatre.)
The first piece, "A Lady of Letters," explores the monotonous life of meddlesome Irene Ruddock (Dia Frid), whose only pal is her pen and whose only means of participating with the world around her is through her aggressive writing campaigns. As Irene, however, Frid is inconsistent in both her accent and in her emotional motivation. The measured build up of humour written into this scene only occasionally finds its deserved realization onstage.
"Her Big Chance"'s story follows Lesley, aspiring actress whose hobbies include "interesting people" and whose latest casting call revolves around the naughtier side of the casting couch. Chantale Grouix fleshes out Lesley as a wide-eyed, kill-'em-with-kindness type and, while believable in her well-endowed absent-mindedness, she is fairly flat in the rest of her delivery, finishing the scene using, more or less, the same energy with which she began it.
Ending the show is "Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet" and, fortunately, it is the best of the bunch. Fozzard is a middle-aged lady who has two major concerns in life: taking care of her stroke-afflicted brother and engaging in long and not wholly appropriate foot care sessions with her fetish-driven podiatrist. As Fozzard, Nonnie Griffin frequently finds the quirky yet quick-witted manner necessary for this type of work: slightly bumbling, but playing in the joke rather than playing the joke itself.
Director Mat Howard sets the three scenes apart from each other, giving them their own space, but these are so underused that they function as little more than colourful backdrops for his actors. What’s more, he has each remain onstage until the end, and watching them shift around uncomfortably while they wait for it all to stop only further detracts from the fast pacing and tight focus Talking Heads should have had.