Alan Bennett's Prize-Winning Comedy Talking Heads Will Receive Its
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by BWW News Desk October 18, 2014 Alan Bennett's prize-winning comedy Talking Heads will receive its central Ohio premiere when APT launches its third professional touring production with three public performances beginning on November 13-21. Talking Heads will be performed at the BalletMet Performance Space in downtown Columbus on November 13, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Clintonville on November 20 and at the Abbey Theater of Dublin on November 21st. All performances are at 8 pm. Linda Dorff plays "Violet," who at nearly one hundred years of age has lost some of her memory but none of her wicked sense of humor. Kerry Shanklin is "Irene," a lonely woman who writes one-too-many poison-pen letters. Anne Diehl is "Miss Fozzard," a prim, middle-aged department store saleswoman whose sore feet lead her into a rather unusual romance. All three are members of Actors Equity Association, the union of professional actors. Originally produced on the BBC in 1988 and 1998, Talking Heads is a series of twelve prize-winning dramatic monologues focusing on seemingly unremarkable people (mostly women) whose lives are nonetheless filled with tragedy, melodrama and especially comedy. Acclaimed by critics - and now included in the advanced high school curriculum in Britain - these mini-plays have become what one critic called "a British cult classic." Talking Heads was produced in the West End (the British equivalent of Broadway) in 1992 and 1998, and has been produced on professional stages all over the English-speaking world. An award-winning Off-Broadway production in 2003 ran for two hundred performances and several of the pieces have been seen on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. The plays have been described as "an actor's feast" and have attracted such stars as Maggie Smith, Patricia Routledge and Lynn Redgrave. The New York Times called Talking Heads "riveting" and TheatreMania described it as "beautifully constructed, filigreed with character detail, and laden with laugh lines." Talking Heads is recommended for high school and older audiences. For further information, visit the APT website at www.aportabletheatre.com .