Careless Talk – Playground Theatre, London

Writer: Ali Williams, adapted from the novel by James Friel

Careless Talk, written and performed by Ali Williams, is an absolute gem.  Adapted from the novel by James Friel, it’s a hugely entertaining comic monologue delivered by Williams in the person of Mabel Bancroft. Mabel starts life as Mabel Daly, a girl not altogether certain of her parentage. Later, when arrested on the Isle of Wight as a British spy, she adopts the unlikely persona of genteel teacher Greta P. Ollock , having accidentally put a full stop after the P of Pollock when forging her National Identity card. Blithely, Mabel simply goes for this fresh incarnation of her chameleon character.

What makes this story particularly wonderful is the fact that Mabel Bancroft actually existed, albeit under her real name, Dorothy Pamela O’Grady. She was, we learn, the first British woman to be found guilty of treachery in WWII and managed to appeal her death sentence, happy to serve 14 years’ penal servitude.

Williams gives a fantastic performance, unforgettable in the ever-changing roles that populate Mabel’s story. At one moment she’s Mabel’s histrionic mother, fluttering her fan, always on the point of death. But the next, she’s Miss Bird, her mother’s sour companion who may or may not have been Mabel’s real mother. Her mother’s circle of friends in the Wirral of the 1920s are ardent supporters of this new chap in Italy, Mussolini. Later Hitler seems like a good bet, and Mabel names her dog after him.

Williams transforms herself again into monosyllabic Joey, the fireman who saw action at Ypres with whom Mabel forms a relationship. When he inherits a hotel in Sandown on the Isle of Wight, she encourages him to seize the opportunity for a fresh start. Together they run a successful business, Mabel enchanted by the proximity of the sea.

And this is only part of Mabel’s story, which soon includes bohemian guests, Aires and Gracie, all sophistication and cigarette-holders. Williams transforms herself in a split second into these fabulously louche characters, as she will later be the Sandown butcher (a purveyor of meat, one should add) and later a Scottish landlady whose residence boasts a ‘conservatoiré’.

Resilient Mabel is undaunted by misfortune, even when Joey disappears following his dalliance with Gracie. Indeed, she seems to be thriving up till the point when torch-lit dog walks on the cliffs lead to her being arrested as a German spy. What is particularly joyous about Mabel is a sheer enjoyment of perilous mischief. Despite being threatened with a death sentence, she doesn’t try to defend herself. Yes, she reflects, perhaps calling canine Hitler to heel could have been mistaken for ‘Heil’, but she merrily continues to leave a trail of marked maps, coded messages and hand-drawn swastikas. It’s all a lark, she insists. Her escape – which only takes her as far as Ventnor – is preceded by her theft of all Gracie’s glamorous evening clothes, a set of costumes ready-made for her new persona.

There are delicious echoes of Victoria Wood and Alan Bennet in the writing, but Friel and Williams’ creation of Mabel is unique, a thing of glory.

Runs until 20 September 2026