‘Abigail’s Party’ at Kingston’s Rose Theatre: The worst party to attend but the most comical party to watch
Jack Bradfield's adaptation of Mike Leigh's 1977 cult-classic Abigail's Party has been running at Kingston's Rose Theatre since 5 November.
With no stage curtain, upon taking my seat, I was immediately drawn in by possibly the best stage setting I've ever seen.
Embodying the home of Laurence (Leander Deeny) and his wife Beverly (Laura Rogers, I couldn't help but think that this was an authentic replication of a home in 70s Britain, even if I wasn't born until the 90s (I watch a lot of classic telly).
With its white, furry carpet, brown leather couches decorated with leopard print cushions, old-school drinks trolley, toilet lid covered with pink fur, and basic dining room and kitchen, I felt as though we'd been transported back in time.
The show only consists of five characters on stage (not including the titular Abigail): Laurence, Beverly, Sue (Amy Rockson), the couple's snobby neighbour, Angela and Tony (Chaya Gupta and Joe Blakemore), a working-class couple who recently moved to the fictitious Richmond Road.
The cast were brilliant, all being extremely funny in their own ways, and having previously interviewed Rogers and Deeny, I was very intrigued to see how they would present their characters.
In the interview, Rogers told me that despite having watched the BBC version of the play with her character played by Alison Steadman, she didn't want to just copy Steadman and that she would use her natural Welsh accent, which for me worked brilliantly well with Leigh's dialogue.
Equally, Deeny did not want to merely copy Tim Stearne's version of Laurence, and I think he played Laurence, who appears to be a sad and frustrated man, exceptionally; I was very impressed at Deeny's ability to shout constantly whilst also appearing nervous.
It was clear that Deeny and Rogers work incredibly well together as the couple appeared to just not like each other, and they both kept the audience laughing throughout; I've actually not yet been to a play where the audience laughed as much as they did at this one.
Gupta and Blakemore also had the audience erupting into laughter as a very mismatched couple; Blakemore's character barely utters more than two syllables with his Geordie grunt until the second half when he gets angry at Angela, and Angela doesn't ever, to be frank, shut up.
Finally, there's Sue, who is clearly the more upper-class character as she arrives at Beverly's party with a bottle of Beaujolais wine, which Beverly clearly doesn't know what to do with, offering to put it in the fridge- I'd be the same, but with the audience laughing at Beverly's comment, I realised this is not what you do with Beaujolais.
Sue is also the mother of the titular Abigail, who is having a party at their family home next door, and the only Black character; the play did project a couple of what would now be viewed as racist comments typical of the time, but I won't go into that.
What I loved about Sue was the facial expressions expertly created by Rockson whenever the seemingly annoying Angela spoke, yet she managed to remain polite.
I would say that alcohol is a potential sixth character to the play as we frequently hear the characters ask the others for "another drink" and witness them drinking a copious amount of G&T's, Bicardi and cokes, light lagers, whiskey, and the infamous Beaujolais.
The play began with Beverly dancing to Donna Summer's 'Love to Love you Baby' whilst she prepared the living room for the party and inhaling a "fag" as they called it whilst she worked.
From this point, I could see that Rogers, dressed in a boho silk maxi dressed coloured in coral blue and brown, with her ginger bob knotted at the top, was perfect for the role of Beverley; a free-spirited woman unhappy in her marriage.
Following this, we're introduced to Laurence, owner of the retro mini parked at the back of the stage, and we can immediately see the power dynamic between the couple with Beverly wearing the trousers, she constantly bosses Laurence around.
Then the guests arrive, having clearly awkward conversations throughout and drinking away the tension.
It is clear at the party that Beverly has her eyes on Tony, frequently flirting with him and later slow dancing with him, and Laurence might fancy Sue, showing an immense interest in what she has to say.
While Angela doesn't seem to notice Beverly's advancements towards her husband until the end, Laurence is obviously jealous of Beverly and Tony.
My favourite part of the show is when Laurence tries but fails to move the couch so Beverly can dance by tumbling right over it, and then tries to bust his best, but slightly embarrassing moves, to seduce his wife into dancing with him; these scenes had everyone laughing.
Throughout the play, which keeps the same setting in its entirety, we often hear music like that of The Sex Pistols blasting from Abigail's party and see Angela and Laurence trying to force feed their guests crisps, peanuts, cheese and pineapple sticks, alcohol, and cigarettes to deflate the awkward atmosphere.
As the party progresses, tensions between the characters become worse and worse with Angela getting jealous of Beverly and Tony and Beverly and Laurence raging into a huge argument.
This then leads Laurence to having a heart attack and Beverly regretting how badly she treats him, even Laurence's heart attack was funny as Deeny projected over-exaggerated Darth Vader-like breaths.
For about five minutes, the play is very dramatic with the characters trying to save Laurence and finally making up for all they had fallen out over throughout the night – Angela and Tony had argued about Tony dancing with Beverley and Tony got slightly aggressive with Angela.
This all leads up to the highly intensified and slightly dramatic ending whereby there are many questions left unanswered.
I say "disappointing" because I wanted to know these answers, but I can see why Leigh ended the play on a cliffhanger as I could hear conversations from the crowd at the end discussing what they think might have happened, and these conversations, I can imagine, will continue for a long time; it was just like the 'duf duf' moments at the end of Eastenders episodes.
Jack Bradfield's version of Abigail's Party was truly amazing, and I enjoyed every second of it.
My only complaint, however, is that we do not see enough of the hilariously funny Laurence, who is off buying more alcohol for the majority of the first half of the first act and leaves with Tony to check out Abigail's party in the second half.
Abigail's Party is running at the Rose Theatre until 16 November.
Book your tickets here.
New kingston Jobs Section Launched!!
Vacancies updated hourly!!
Click here: kingston jobs
Share:
