ABIGAIL’S PARTY Wyndham’s Theatre
Mike Leigh’s comedy, with its definitive performance by Alison Steadman, was a legendary cult hilt on television in 1977 with 16 million viewers. The satire on the marital miseries and bad taste of the under-educated and rising lower-middle-classes was a collective improvised effort by the original cast, structured and refined by Leigh. Jill Halfpenny plays the hilariously ghastly Beverly who swans around in a lime-green evening dress with a plunging neckline, forcing drinks and cigarettes on her guests, who include a computer operator (Joe Absolom, very monosyllabic), his wife (Natalie Casey, very talkative, very tactless, very funny) and a divorcee (Susannah Harker, very genteel). Beverly constantly humiliates her estate agent husband (Andy Nyman) whom she loves only for his money. Nyman is hugely embarrassing when he is ramming culture down the guests’ throats. These caricatures are an amusing commentary on 1970’s manners and mores and belong to a satirical tradition which includes Thomas Rowlandson and George du Maurier. Lindsay Posner’s production has a first-class ensemble and the pretensions, anxieties and humiliations build to a dramatic and unexpected climax.