The Shrine/Bed Among the Lentils

Although David Hare’s Ralph Fiennes-starring Covid-monologue ‘Beat the Devil’ has hogged the headlines, the backbone of the Bridge Theatre’s season of socially distanced monologues is a live reprise for the Bridge-produced TV adaptations of Alan Bennett’s classic ‘Talking Heads’ monologues that were screened on the BBC during high lockdown. They’re performed in double bills with no intervals, and they have some pretty stunning actors attached. The ‘first’ show is a pairing of the Monica Dolan-starring ‘The Shrine’ – about a woman whose memories of her dead husband are complicated when somebody else leaves flowers on his grave – and ‘Bed Among the Lentils’ performed by the great Lesley Manville, about a prim and proper Little Englishwoman who has an affair with an Indian shopkeeper. Both shows are directed by Bridge boss Nicholas Hytner.