More Talking Heads
14th May - 16th May 2009
In 2008 Dolphin Theatre audiences helped raise a
considerable amount for the theatre building development fund by attending
performances of celebrated British playwright Alan Bennett’s award-winning
“Talking Heads” series.
A further fund raiser is coming up 14-16 May 2009.
In conjunction with Dolphin, MSM Theatre – comprising three Dolphin
“regulars”, Max and Sue Golding and Maxine Burgham-Page, plus designer
Dugald Page – will be back with an entirely new show called “More Talking
Heads”, guest directed by Sheila Summers.
This time the show has a different twist.
Two more of the Bennett monologues, “A Cream Cracker Under the
Settee” and “Her Big Chance” are partnered with “Resolution”, an
award-winning solo play by British playwright Pip Utton.
This was an Edinburgh Fringe Festival hit for Utton in 2000, and he has been
touring it in Britain and Europe, along with his other one-man shows, ever
since.
This show is a FUND RAISING EVENT and not in our usual calendar, so
members tickets do not apply. Bookings are now open for the three evening
shows plus a matinee on the Saturday afternoon. For bookings please call our
usual number - (09) 636 7322 or email
bookings@dolphintheatre.org.nz.
SYNOPSIS
In “Resolution”, we meet Peter, a happy family man,
proud of his daughter Suzy. Then a hit and run driver
kills her on her eighteenth birthday. We follow events
over the next three years for Peter and the man who killed his daughter.
Max Golding (the repressed Graham in “A Chip in the Sugar”) plays tow
roles in “Resolution”, alternating pieces of monologue – Suzy’s father, and
the imprisoned killer. Utton’s piece addresses an issue
very close to home – the need to see adequate punishment exacted on the
perpetrators of the crime.
Bennett’s monologues are a mastery of humour, irony,
passion and sadness. He is celebrated for his razor sharp
wit and poignant portraits of ordinary people.
In “A Cream Cracker Under the Settee”, Doris, widowed
after being married to Wilfred, and living in the same house for over fifty
years, has a pace-maker and dizzy spells. She has regular
home help (or is it “home hindrance”?) from Zulema, a council-paid cleaner.
How long can Doris
maintain her independence? Maxine Burgham-Page moves from
writing to all and sundry in “A Lady of Letters” to Doris’ plight.
“Her Big Chance” is the story of Lesley, an ambitious
yet somewhat delusional actress in search of the ever-elusive big break.
Lesley works hard at her craft bur needs a career “leg-up”.
Will a chance encounter at a party provide just that?
Sue Golding walks in Lesley’s shoes – a far cry from Susan, the
downtrodden vicar’s wife in “A Bed Among the Lentils”.