Conrad Nelson, Roberta Kerr, Hazel Maycock

Darkly comic, poignant and uplifting, Talking Heads is widely acknowledged as a modern classic and showcases Bennett’s great achievement of getting under the skin of his characters and bringing them to life with remarkable understanding, compassion and bittersweet humour.

The New Vic will see three of Bennett’s hilarious and heartbreaking monologues - A Chip in the Sugar, A Lady of Letters and A Cream Cracker under the Settee – take centre stage from Friday 25 January to Saturday 16 February.

Middle-aged Graham in A Chip In The Sugar, finds life with his mother threatened by the appearance of an old flame. Curtain-twitching Irene, in A Lady Of Letters, is always eager to speak (or, rather, write) her mind. And, in A Cream Cracker Under The Settee, an obsession with housework leads to Doris’ downfall.

These unforgettable portraits of quirky, often vulnerable, sometimes awkward characters marked Bennett as one of the great writers of his generation.