New Vic Theatre Company

It’s talent night at Bunters Nitespot and secretary Julie is making her bid for fame and fortune. With frumpy best friend Maureen in tow, she’s plunged into the backstage world of ukulele-wielding pensioners, hapless magicians and predatory comperes with wandering hands and white Cortinas.

Julie is desperate for success and a new life; Maureen just wishes she was 14 again. But, when a face from the past turns up and some painful memories are unearthed, they’re forced to ask, what’s the point of success? And what does it really mean to have talent?

Drawing on her own experiences of the talent show circuit, Victoria, who won New Faces in 1973, wrote Talent in 1978 aged just 25. The play was commissioned by Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre before transferring to London and earning Victoria the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright.