To continue reading:
or
Log-In
One For The Books
Subscriber content preview.
or
Log-In
It's a wonder the modern world can find a place for Alan Bennett. In an age of braying, he whispers. In a pop culture consecrated to
Don Juan,
he seems the grayish professor a wan don. His plays, for stage and TV, are subtle comedies about daft people (
The Madness of George III, The Lady in the Van
) or lost ones (
An Englishman Abroad, Talking Heads
). His method is understatement, indirection, irony. "In England, we never entirely mean what we say, do we?" a Bennett character declares in the 1977 play
The Old Country.
"Do I mean that? Not...