A party ends the summer season
Abigail’s Party, by Mike Leigh, The Jill Freud Company, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh until August 28 and St Edmunds Hall, Southwold, August 31 – September 11
This classic satire overflows with amusing lines and situations but paints a rather bleak portrait of human nature.
The role of self-centred Beverly, a monster rampaging through a tired, childless marriage, was made famous by Alison Steadman and in this production Rebecca Raybone gives a highly skilled impersonation; which is true of all the actors in this excellent cast. For the play and its characters are so well defined it is difficult to find any scope for freshness.
And perhaps we should not seek innovation for, especially in the British psyche, there may be a greater need to just sit back and look into the mirror while enjoying the sheer brilliance of a playwright at the top end of the trade and a well-drilled cast bringing out all the nuances on offer.
The play is set in the 1970s. Beverly and her down-trodden, workaholic husband, Laurence (Jonathan Ashley) are entertaining neighbours - Angela and Tony, newcomers to the estate, and divorcee Sue, who has been obliged to leave her home while her 15-year-old daughter hosts a party.
You may also want to watch:
As the alcohol flows so tensions rise leaving the anxious Sue in the uncomfortable midst of ugly marital disharmony. For Beverly is more interested in the largely monosyllabic, ex-professional footballer Tony (Ben Tillett) than Lawrence whom she cruelly derides as being dead from the waist down.
Angela, played superbly by Louise Shuttleworth, chatters on in the face of growing, alcohol fuelled contempt from her own, bullying husband.
Most Read
- 1 Rise in number of Covid patients in Suffolk and north Essex hospitals
- 2 'I will be like Demolition Man... there will be a lot of pain' - Cook on his Town squad overhaul
- 3 Judge heading to Ipswich exit as contract clause could end Irishman's Portman Road stay
- 4 All 24 League One home kits ranked from worst to first
- 5 Ipswich Town owner Johnson close to adding another club to his portfolio
- 6 Peter Andre visits Ipswich for post-lockdown haircut
- 7 Names of couple found dead in Woodbridge confirmed
- 8 Next steps outlined for decision on A12 traffic light plans
- 9 Suffolk police teams to star in new documentary series on Dave
- 10 Bar linked to ‘serious crime’ can re-open weeks after licence suspended
Pauline Whitaker gave an excellent under-stated performance as Sue, polite, educated and damaged, feeling out of place among her patronising neighbours, fearful of what is happening back at home.
I felt that the opening “line-less” scene-setting was a tad too long and that the hilarious/tragic ending needed building into more of a crescendo.
But characterisation and timing was top class throughout and the tensions between the couples were carefully built by the cast, directed by Richard Frost. A fine, polished production with which to bring the Southwold and Aldeburgh summer theatre season to an end.
David Green
