Nest Lewis and Colleen Elson as the Talking Heads presented two fine British monologues last Thursday evening at Gibsons Heritage Playhouse.
In Bed Among the Lentils, Lewis plays Susan, a vicar's wife questioning some important things about her life while developing a secret one of her own.
"Geoffrey's bad enough," she declares in the opening, "but I'm glad I wasn't married to Jesus."
The tone is immediately set for Susan's dalliance with something different. Although that something includes alcoholism and infidelity, Lewis keeps the audience laughing throughout at the truth and dark humour of it all.
In A Cream Cracker Under the Settee, Elson plays the elderly woman, Doris, whose fear of institutionalization causes her to not accept help from anyone. In a highly emotional scene, as the light falls to evening, we see a woman confronting her own dimming of life. Her flashes of anger and impatience with the current day are like fading embers.
Both plays were confidently handled by two of the Coast's most experienced actors and together made for a thoughtful and entertaining evening.
In case you missed it, Talking Heads will be repeated at the Heritage Playhouse Sept. 17 and 18.
