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The trials of talent on a slow night up north
TALENT
Upstairs at the Gatehouse
TALENT, Victoria Wood’s first play, is the comedienne’s take on a familiar yet compelling story.
It’s the night of a talent contest. Julie (Stephanie Briggs), office worker and aspiring singer, arrives in her dressing room. She informs her assistant, the overeating mate from school, Maureen (Vikki Stone), that she’ll do anything to make it to the top. As the evening wears on, however, her dreams soon wear off.
Set in the north of England in 1978, it’s a very English loss of innocence. Ashtrays overflow and cigarette butts litter the floor. They can’t find the toilet, so Julie pees in a showbiz bowler hat.
They are pestered by a comedy-magic act, amateur pensioners George and Arthur (Harry Dickman and John Walters) who remind Julie quite how far away from fame she is. However, it is when she meets Mel, the organist, and the compulsively lecherous compere (both played by Charlie Carter) that she receives her true education in the sordid realities of show business.
John Plews’s well-crafted production is breezy and fun, only let down by a whimsical, drama-sparse plot. The play functions more like a showbiz revue: a series of stand-up jokes interspersed with songs, and a live bingo game with the audience after the interval. Some of the humour has dated over the years.
But when Talent works it sings. Walters and Dickman have some great moments, and Stone and Briggs do an admirable job with a dense script.
The songs are beautifully executed and, juxtaposed with the naffness of the characters’ lives, they add a dose of genuine pathos.
This is a show less about succeeding at all costs and more about the comic sadness of growing-up. If you’re a fan of Wood, or a more contemporary equivalent, Peter Kay, it’s well worth checking out.
Until April 6
020 8340 3488 |
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