Abigail’s Party opened in April 1977 at the Hampstead Theatre in London, devised and directed by Mike Leigh. It was a huge success and was adapted for television broadcast by the BBC, later that same year, both featuring Alison Steadman in the starring role of Beverley.
The play is now famous for being a 70’s nostalgia throwback, with a living room set of psychedelic wallpaper, an old school rotary telephone and of course, a cheese and pineapple hedgehog (younger readers may need to look that one up).
Abigail’s Party is a story of British Class. Three sets of neighbours, all living within a stones throw of each other but all on different rungs of the proverbial social ladder.
Beverley (plays hilariously by Tamzin Outhwaite) has invited the new neighbour Angela (Ashna Rabheru) over for a drink to welcome her to the neighbourhood. She arrives, elated to be making friends with the locals, with her less excited husband Tony (played fantastically dry by Omar Malik) in toe. Lawrence, Beverley’s husband (played by Kevin Bishop) is late home from work and rushing around to get ready. Beverley has also invited neighbour Sue (Pandora Colin) over, as her fifteen year old daughter, Abigail, is having a party. Sue is on edge about how things are going next door but Beverley and Angela are set on having their own party, throwing back the gin and tonics and within an hour or so, the party takes a drunken turn. Sexually frustrated Beverley is busy flirting with Angela’s husband Tony, whilst telling all who will listen about her marital problems to Lawrence, who just sits get there, embarrassed. Divorcee Sue is quietly judged by the other women for her failed marriage but we soon see the layers of their relationships, peeled back to show that not everything is as perfect as it first seems.
This production, at Theatre Royal Stratford East, is sensational. Each actor is perfectly cast and plays it very true to the original piece. If you’ve not seen the show before then this is a version you simply must go along to and enjoy it for what it is. There are no fancy bells and whistles or major plot twists but a perfect representation of life in the 1970’s and what people got up to on a Saturday night before television and social media were around.
West End Wilma
