Talking Heads 2, Octagon Theatre, Bolton. Runs until February 17

FOUR actresses performing in monologues on the same evening might be perceived to be in competition. But it would be grossly unfair to put them in such a position because Alan Bennett's plays differ in quality. The best-known, and, arguably the best-written of the four, is A Cream Cracker Under The Settee. Ann Rye is outstanding in it as Doris, the 75-year-old hygiene fanatic.

It's the part Thora Hird played on television, but Rye puts her own stamp on the part and veers from humour to grief with consummate skill as she recalls a tragedy which changed her life. As she shuffles across the floor, she portrays perfectly the impotence of an independent woman condemned to inactivity. It's a beautifully judged performance. Bed Among The Lentils, about a vicar's wife with a liking for the bottle and a hearty dislike of her husband and his church, is another of Bennett's gems.

Anny Tobin is laugh-out-loud funny as she enacts the disastrous flower-arranging scene and the subsequent way the vicar makes capital of having an alcoholic wife.

She teeters on the brink of drunkenness with some skill and makes us detest the sanctimonious vicar as much as she does.

Neither Soldiering On with Zena Walker and Her Big Chance with Debbie Arnold have quite the poignancy of the previous monologues.

Walker is excellent as the middle-class widow who is reduced to penury and turns to all-day television for comfort. There are not many laughs in this one, but Walker is touching as she tries to come to terms with a son who has betrayed her financially, and the fact that her late husband betrayed her sexually with their daughter.

Debbie Arnold, first on stage with Her Big Chance, perhaps the weakest of Bennett's monologues, has the difficult task of making Lesley, the would-be serious actress, into a four-dimensional character.

Julie Walters managed it on television, but Arnold never quite gets to grips with the role.

She certainly looks the part but never completely captures the vulnerability and self-delusion of an actress who ends up in various beds on route for a porn film. Director Lawrence Till who persuaded Alan Bennett to allow this premiere stage performance of the four plays, successfully creates a suitably intimate atmosphere by ensuring the performers reach out to all the audience and the result is a thoroughly entertaining evening.

The run has been extended to accommodate Bennett's many fans. They won't be disappointed. DOREEN CROWTHER

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