Television Reviews : Maggie Smith’s Magic Makes ‘Heads’ Magnetic

Maggie Smith’s performance in Alan Bennett’s “Talking Heads: Bed Among the Lentils” (on “Masterpiece Theatre” Sunday, 8 p.m. on Channels 50 and 24, 9 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15) falls into a category one could whimsically call the Theater of Close Attention. Yours.

This boldly static piece (which also represents Bennett’s directorial debut) requires an audience willing to listen even more than to watch--or an audience so infatuated with and devoted to Maggie Smith’s uncommon talents, that it will sit still and simply watch her talk. But what sly talk it is.

For 50 minutes we listen to Susan (Smith), the middle-aged alcoholic wife of a stuffy small-town vicar, cattily regale us with the dreary minutiae of her life, her deadly marriage, her undeclared warfare with her husband’s parish “fan club,” and her own rather remarkable personal adventures in Leeds, where she travels to replenish her supply of sherry.

The piece is deceptively magnetic. It attracts chiefly by the cleverness of its understatement and the gall to keep the camera firmly focused on Smith’s face.

Bennett implicitly trusts Smith’s ability to deliver all the dryness and wryness in his devilishly witty script without hurrying, without betraying much emotion or--a real victory for Smith--giving in to a single mannerism.

This is a clean, tart performance that creeps up on you and gets you by the throat before you know what hit you. Anyone looking for “action” will be disappointed. All that happens here is in the past tense. It is suggested by changes of detail, not camera angles: the hair that is more carefully arranged at the end than at the beginning; the costume that becomes more decorous as the character grows more self-possessed; the prudish pin carefully attached to the collar of the blouse; the sound of one hand clapping.

It’s a special experience, patiently and courageously done.