THE LEMON TABLE

The only thing Prunella Scales can’t do perfectly is an American accent; there seems nothing Timothy West can’t do. These two immensely skilled actors present the memorable stories in this collection with great wit and sympathy. West gives us an aging husband, full of himself and scornful of his wife, in town for a regimental dinner. But as he tries to find the even older prostitute with whom he dallied annually over the years, West makes us feel how disorienting, how finally shattering this day becomes for him, eliciting true identity and sympathy where we had expected to feel none. Scales’s portrait of two widows of a certain age who meet for lunches to condescend to each other is sharply, delicately drawn. My personal favorite is the opinionated octogenarian who writes letters to the author, “Dr. Barnes,” but all these stories are as good as the performances, making this a production that will reward multiple listenings. B.G. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 05]