Talent

Published Wednesday 12 March 2008 at 12:05 by Heather Neill

Victoria Wood’s 1978 comedy with songs, written in three weeks from the young performer’s experience of getting started in the biz, buffs up nicely in the era of television talent marathons. The circumstances - the back room of Bunter’s, a dingy northern cabaret club - may look very different from the brash studios of The X Factor, but the promise of fame, the thrill of applause, are just the same. Television competitions were already a route to stardom - Wood’s subject is a local heat.

Pretty Julie has a nice voice and a plump friend, Maureen, who loyally carries the bags for her more street-wise friend. Maureen was originally played by Wood herself and, food-stuffing and unambitious, she - ironically - demonstrates singing, acting, piano-playing and comic talents both within and commenting on the action. A padded Vikki Stone roundly fills the bill. Add Stephanie Briggs’ Julie - funny and sweetly warbling - a fumbling, fluffing music hall double act (Harry Dickman and John Walters) and Charlie Carter as both Julie’s mullet-sporting ex and a sleazy compere and you have the appropriate denizens of Mike Lees’ fag-encrusted set.

The introduction of a game of bingo, while adding little to the play, is an unusual experience for the enthusiastic Highgate audience.