When it opened at Hampstead Theatre in April 1977, Mike Leigh’s now seminal play Abigail’s Party was an instant hit. Such a hit, in fact, that the BBC swooped in and filmed it as a Play for Today, thus immortalising Alison Steadman’s name-making performance as screeching suburban siren Beverley, who presides over the drinks party from hell. Forty nine years on and our admiration for this acutely observed drama of marital rifts, class consciousness and sexual frustration burns just as brightly, with a production starring Tamzin Outhwaite arriving in the West End for a limited summer run.
The scene opens on the perfect snapshot of a 1970s home, with dreadful wallpaper crowding in on the three-piece suite and the drinks cabinet. Outhwaite’s Beverley shimmies on in a slinky orange kaftan, dancing to the sort of music guaranteed to irk her henpecked husband Laurence (Kevin Bishop), a man who prides himself on higher cultural aspirations (he’s delighted with his unread leather-bound volumes of Dickens and Shakespeare). New neighbours, excitable Angela and taciturn Tony, have been invited over, as has quiet Sue, whose teenage daughter Abigail is hosting the unseen titular gathering. The drinks start to flow and Bev wastes no time in flirting furiously with Tone.
