The yellow heavily-patterned wallpaper, the orange lava lamp and beige leather sofas create Lee Newby’s wonderful set, dragged straight out of the seventies.
Beverly puts a record on, pours herself a drink, lights a cigarette and begins to dance. She is having a party, the neighbours are coming round. But Abigail, Susan’s fifteen year old daughter, is also having a party next door. This is the opening to Mike Leigh’s ‘Abigail’s Party’ which was first written in 1977, and considers class, relationships and the culture of suburbia. Certainly some topical points of discussion in today’s society, though these contemporary parallels could be more heavily delved into. The production hints at these more poignant moments, but shies away from truly exploring them. Ivan Stott’s sound design has the familiar seventies records which punctuate the play underscored with a throbbing base from next door, a consistent reminder of the speed with which culture changes.
There isn’t a weak link across the cast. Amy Downham’s Angela is lively, warm and vivid, with fantastic comic timing. Susie Emmett as Susan is a lovely presence on stage, grounded and subtle in her performance. Melanie Gutteridge plays the overbearing Beverly, topping up everyone’s glasses and dancing too close to Tony (Liam Bergin) as she insists on another record. Bergin’s Tony feels slightly uncertain, a harmless, comic presence initially that makes the later revelations about his character less convincing, or perhaps the dichotomy isn’t pushed far enough. Some of the strongest moments come as the company sits in silence together, shuffling awkwardly, a strong comic motif of the production.
Towards the second half of the play, there begins a tendency toward the farcical which makes the ending feel slightly confused, neither emotionally impactful nor overly funny. The shock effect is not felt in the way it should be, and the reactions to the situation feel somewhat ingenuine.
This is a lively revival of Mike Leigh’s classic, supported by strong performances but in need of a more impactful finale.
Reviewed by Amelia Brown
Photography by Mark Sepple
Abigail’s Party
Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch until 22nd September
Related
Abi, a contemporary response to Abigail’s Party by Atiha Sen Gupta is running alongside Abigail’s Party – review here
“McEntire and Huntley as the two leads give incredible performances”
Jordan Seavey’s ‘Homos, or Everyone in America’, receiving its European premiere at the Finborough Theatre, is a whirlwind of a play, full of love, intelligence, mystery and warmth.
Told in scenes that leap around between 2006 and 2011, ‘Homos…’ is the story of ‘The Writer’ (Harry McEntire) and ‘The Academic’ (Tyrone Huntley), two twenty-somethings living in Brooklyn, NY. They meet over Friendster, the social networking site that appears to have been the next big thing before Myspace and Facebook arrived on the block, and from a drunken first date onwards, the play charts their highs and lows, their arguments, make-ups, break-ups and everything in between, until one life-changing event unsettles and rearranges everything they had before. “Handsome, and sort of strapping” Dan (Dan Krikler), a friend of The Academic, becomes a key player in the couple’s downfall, whilst Laila (Cash Holland), an enthusiastic and kind Lush worker, does what she can to help a stranger in a time of need.
A play about well-educated New York gay men talking about being gay can hardly be called ground-breaking, but Seavey’s script, stylistically built up on half-sentences, interruptions and people talking over each other, is moving, truthful, and feels real. The structure means each scene is sort of a guessing game as to when and where we are in the relationship, and the neat movement sequences (simply effective work from Chi-San Howard) work with the script to foreshadow a darker event on the couples’ horizon.
McEntire and Huntley as the two leads give incredible performances, sitting into the characters convincingly, and seeming free and at ease with each other and the space. Both actors display an impressive ability to snap out of emotional fraught scenes and move into lighter ones (and vice versa) at the drop of hat, and in a play so filled with arguments, they make the most of the kinder, funnier moments to give the audience a sense of why they are together.
Josh Seymour’s direction keeps the action varied, even when the script begins to feel a little repetitive (argue – make-up – repeat), and by giving us physical milestones at the beginning to keep an eye out for, gives a strange sense of emotional déjà vu, as if it’s somehow our relationship up on stage. A word of warning though: those with sensitive noses beware, this production contains Lush products, and lots of them.
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand…” Williams Blake once wrote, and on the Finborough’s luscious, sand-covered stage, this relationship works hard to be the one grain representing many. It seemed odd at first to be taken back to Bush and Obama, but that time frame, and the shock and drama of the finale, suggest now more than ever is a time for vigilance and action. Has the world become (to use a word hated by The Writer) less tolerant, less safe? We hope not, but in the meantime, let’s celebrate love, kindness and what individuals can do for each other.
