The Shrine / Bed Among The Lentils London Reviews and Tickets

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About the Show

Nicholas Hytner directs a double bill of monologues from Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series.

The Shrine BAFTA Award winner, Monica Dolan (All About Eve) plays Lorna, a widower who returns to the spot where her husband died following a motorbike accident. Bed Among the Lentils Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread, Ghosts) plays Susan, a middle-aged woman whose life centres around her husband, her church and fellow church-goers.

Critic Reviews (6)

Kristin Scott Thomas gave a tightly wound, beautifully nuanced performance as Celia... Rochenda Sandall... was riveting as a woman denying her suspicions about her husband’s nocturnal walks...'
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Manville and Dolan are magnificent...Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads monologues were TV gold during lockdown. Seeing Monica Dolan and Lesley Manville perform them live is even better.'
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Manville registers minute shifts of mood...in a way that carries across the theatre, and reminds you of the art form’s transcendent power...Monica Dolan proves a dab hand at realising her drab Northern character...'
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...Dolan magnificently finds all the notes of love and regret in another wasted life...But it's Bed Among the Lentils that emerges in as a masterpiece... Lesley Manville is extraordinary...'
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Bennett remains bafflingly popular. How formulaic his riffs feel... Bennett has a veneer of sympathy yet there is something cruelly caricatured about his characters. ... The acting is subtly brilliant...'
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Monica Dolan and Lesley Manville are peerless in this Alan Bennett double bill...Dolan brings subtly heartbreaking nuances to a script in which any hint of Bennett’s occasional laughs at his characters' expense seems absent.'
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Bridge Theatre

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