“Has any actor, especially a glamorous former ‘EastEnders’ star, embraced the grotesque on stage as admirably and wholeheartedly as Tamzin Outhwaite,” asked Nick Curtis in The London Standard. Following her “utterly un-vain” performance as Kath in “Entertaining Mr Sloane”, Outhwaite now reprises her “monstrous” turn as Beverly, the “egomaniac” hostess from hell in Mike Leigh’s 1977 comedy “Abigail’s Party”.“In a diaphanous orange frock and ratted Farrah Fawcett wig”, she gives a “tour de force” star turn in Nadia Fall’s assured revival: “every gesture, every wag of her sandalled ankle, reeks of self-satisfaction and command”, even as her drinks party descends into chaos. And there’s fine support from Kevin Bishop, deploying a roster of “sitcom harrumphs and double-takes” as Beverly’s “pretentious, prating” husband, Laurence.
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