Some pictures from 'Abigail's Party'

We happy few who managed to get to the sole performance of Abigail’s Party can report what an outstanding production this was, marred only by the accursed snow which curtailed its run.

The scene is a suburban housing estate where the upwardly mobile aspire to the mock tudor dwellings which declare ‘success’ to the endlessly competitive middle classes.  Hostess Beverley (Rosie Cumberlidge) puts on an excruciating soiree of cheese and pineapple chunks swilled down with Gin and Tonic by the gallon!  Her work-stressed, hen-pecked husband, Estate Agent Laurence (Rob Balderstone), hurries between business appointments, phone-calls and errands to the off-licence to keep Beverley in the situation to which she has become accustomed.

The guests are a motley assortment of creatures:  Angela (played by Jessie Rosewarne) with her grating small-talk and rictus smile nevertheless exudes kindliness.  We sympathise with her as she struggles to contain her lothario husband, Tony (played by Ben Dowling with wonderful insouciance).  The final guest is the insipid Susan (played by Astrid Hall) who is as ineffectual in managing her daughter Abigail as she is able to hold her drink – spending part of the play wretching noisily off stage in the downstairs lavatory! Into this claustrophobic world intrudes the rowdy debauchery of Abigail’s Party – which is heard, visited by the male cast, but never seen by the audience.  Mike Leigh’s witheringly comic eye has never been so acerbic as in this acid send-up of the social-climbing vices of the English Middle Class.

In a daring design, co-directors Jane Bird and Jenny Ajederian placed the audience virtually inside Rosie’s front room.  The front row found its feet on Rosie’s decorative rug with the cocktail stick buffet, tantalisingly, in hands’ reach.  The dedication to detail was perfect – 70s suits, maxi dresses and a hideous selection of easy listening of the period which included Demis Roussos!

But the real triumph and power of the production, of course, came down to the extraordinarily nuanced performances of the cast.  The actors were happy to draw on aspects of caricature to depict some traits of character; but the depth of their performances touched far more profound levels – these characters were multi-dimensional and, whilst we laughed at their frailties and foibles, it was an uncomfortable laughter.  We knew people like these – and sometimes catch a glimpse of them in the mirror!

Abigail’s Party was an absolute triumph.  How sad that so few were able, in the end, to see it.