Abigail’s Party at the Royal Exchange Theatre is must-see!

Review by Steve Cooke

The Royal Exchange’s latest production is a revival of Abigail's Party, a play for stage and television, devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy -a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s.

This production, directed by Natalie Abrahami, is set in the same period of time but transferred from the suburbs of Essex to Manchester.

Mike Leigh in his trademark style developed the play through lengthy improvisations during which he explored the characters with the actors, but did not always reveal the incidents that would occur during the play. The production opened in April 1977 at the Hampstead Theatre, and returned after its initial run in the summer of 1977, for 104 performances in all. A recording was arranged at the BBC as a Play for Today, produced by Margaret Matheson for BBC Scotland and transmitted in November 1977, the central character Beverley played by Alison Steadman.

Abigail's Party is meant to make you cringe – and the audience did on numerous occasions but much more frequently exploded with laughter at the ensemble’s facial expressions.

The stage set, by Peter Butler, expertly deploys the unique space at the Exchange with a set on a revolving stage that is sparingly but very effectively used, giving the audience different perspectives of the unfurling action. The 70’s living room, kitchen and [burgundy] toilet are all compactly portrayed with the closeness of the audience adding to the claustrophobic intimacy.

The use of music by such 70’s staples such as José Feliciano, Elvis Presley and Demis Rousos brings period authenticity. [In the original production Mike Leigh had to replace these, his original choices with British alternatives, to avoid copywrite issues.]

Kym Marsh, making her Royal Exchange debut, calls this ‘My biggest challenge on stage to date’ - a challenge that has driven her to produce a performance that highlights her outstanding acting skills, making this Beverley very much one of her own creation, with a passive aggressive delivery of her put downs and slights - an interesting contrast to Alison Steadman’s more acerbic original performance.

Beverley is an overbearing queen of an all mod-cons trendy home living the seemingly perfect life. Her materialistic one-up-[wo]man-ship, patronising and self-aggrandisement masking a frustrated and lonely reality in a cold marriage with simmering contempt on both sides.

The former Coronation Street star looks fabulous in her flowing gown topped with a typically 70’s Charlie's Angels style haircut. She  glides seductively as she serves up, sometimes welcomed and others not, drink after drink leading to increasing the intoxication of her guests.  With a mixture of charm, persistence and veiled malice she imposes herself on each of them.

Beverley’s young neighbour Angela [Yasmin Taheri] seems to be naive and in awe her new 'best friend. However, it soon becomes apparent that Angela is in a toxic relationship with the brooding Tony. Initially Kyle Rowe's Tony appears to be the sort of person who doesn't do parties ,or even conversations with his monosyllabic replies but as the piece progresses, he becomes more menacing towards his wife whilst at the same time becoming the not unwilling  target of Beverley’s increasingly tipsy overt flirtatiousness.

Graeme Hawley, as Beverly's estate agent husband Laurence, has some of the funniest moments as the victim of his wife's most cutting put-downs.  He skilfully portrays haplessness and helplessness in trying to avoid revealing the true state of his marriage.

Tupele Dorgu gives a very strong performance as Susan the divorced, long-time resident whose daughter Abigail is having a party of her own. She clearly feels out of place and uncomfortable from the star. As the gin and tonics begin to take their toll, she gets more and more inebriated leading to an embarrassing vomiting session -  at the same time her beautifully executed facial expressions and body language reveal her becoming more and more aware of this nest of vipers she's landed herself in.

The excruciating interactions are what make Abigail’s Party so funny, and this wonderful cast deliver to perfection, the audience laughing even in the darkest moments

I can’t remember the last time I heard an audience at the Exchange ‘whoop’ at  both the interval and end of a production.

Don’t miss it!

Abigail's Party is at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, until May 24.

Details from www.royalexchange.co.uk