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Cocktail Sticks

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About this listen

A radio adaptation of Alan Bennett's short autobiographical play, originally directed by Nicholas Hytner for the National Theatre.

Alan looks back on his early life with affection and sadness, revisiting some of the themes and conversations of his memoir 'A Life Like other People's'. Both he and his mother are seduced by the idea that other people's lives are much richer and fulfilling than their own. But when they do, finally, have cocktail parties, they are not at all what his mother would have envisaged....

Alan is played by Alex Jennings and Alan Bennett, supported by the original National theatre cast of Gabrielle Lloyd, Jeff Rawle, Sue Wallace and Derek Hutchinson.

©2015 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2015 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd Drama & Plays Entertainment & Performing Arts European World Literature
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Beautiful voices. Very poignant but yet filled with life. The exploration of his parents life through an old bottle of cocktail sticks bringsbb CNN laughter but also deep regret. Loved it.

Brilliant Bennett

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I love everything Alan Bennett writes - this is so poignant, a beautiful and sensitive memoir of family life.. they think they’re different but most families muddle through ..

Fantastic listen

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After listening to this account of Alan’s parents and the mental illness of depression which his mother Lilian suffered so badly, I gained a whole new respect for Alan Bennett. He writes with kindnes, thoughtfulness, clarity and truth, as well as dealing with the still stigmatised illness “depression” with a tenderness that can become lost when someone close to you, such as your mother is a sufferer, and relations can be become brittle because you too suffer when you become ‘the carer’ and as Bennett admits, “he shuck his mother so hard and for so long when telling her to come to her senses” that it must have hurt her. He confronts his relationship with his parents with love and an openness most simply would not wish to face. This is full on Bennett style which did not disappoint.

ALAN BENNETT A DEDICATED SON

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Alan Bennett can do no wrong..He catches the souls
of the people he writes about.

required reading

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