Precious Little Talent

Synopsis

It's Christmas and Londoner Joey flees to New York in a bid to find comfort with her estranged father. Just as the world seems to have shunned her, so will he. Yet in the face of such rejection world-weary Joey falls in love with an idealistic young American. Precious Little Talent is a story of fathers and daughters, of aspiration and frustration, of memory and loss.

Our Review:

Andrew Girvan - 11 April 2011

Ella Hickson's Eight transferred to Trafalgar Studios and - thanks to its Carol Tambor prize - New York following its acclaimed 2008 Edinburgh Fringe run. Her her second play, Precious Little Talent, written on the eve of her graduation, now follows it into the Trafalgar space.

Joey (Olivia Hallinan) is part of a deserted generation, seizing New Labour's promise of access to Higher Education her opportunities are squandered by a faltering economy. A high achiever, her first class degree can't help her hold down a bar job. Alienated by her mother's second marriage, she seeks refuge with her estranged father George (Ian Gelder), an academic who has fled to New York.

Anthony Welsh delivers a charming performance as George's young American carer, sparring with Hallinan before winning her over. As employer, and Joey's father, Gelder captures a man falling apart before his time, having good days and bad days and blowing hot and cold. Wit...

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Latest User Review

Steve - 16 April 2011:

80 minutes seemed a little short for a fulfilling night out, but I wanted to see a play by Ella Hickson, so I went anyway. Distilling the hopes and expectations of most Westerners through three very different characters, Ella Hickson's play moved me. George has dementia, his mind and life are fading away, and Ian Gelder's performance is poignant and perfect: his fear of answering Trivial Pursuit questions he would once have aced, his stand-offishness as a guard against being caught out. But the play would be fruitless miserabilism if it wasn't for the two young people foregrounded, George's daughter, Joey, and George's carer, Sam. Sam is confidently and optimistically seeking his place in the world, whereas Joey pessimistically believes that her talents will get her precious little in today's shrinking economy. The interplay of these two, their different takes on the same events, their growing affection for each other, makes for a dynamic yet dexterously light examination of what is worthwhile for people living low expectations. Thoroughly decent people like Sam can be dull to watch, but Anthony Welsh is utterly charismatic and winning as Sam, bumbling, deluded, yet ultimately clear-eyed in his relentless positivity. Welsh generates so much warmth and charm that when he looked me in the eye from three feet away (this is an incredibly intimate theatre) I didn't feel at all uncomfortable. Olivia Hallinan (so memorable in the naughties in Channel 4's Sugar Rush as an overheated teenager with a crush on her best friend), appears here as Joey, confused, fragile, charming and sardonic as in Sugar Rush but now also projecting an air of futility and despair. The play, the performers and the space combine to create a memorable and resonant evening....

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