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| Edinburgh : A&E : Theatre: Reviews |
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Theatre listings > Abigail's Party
- Tour. Ah, the Seventies. Trim phones, shag-pile carpets, teak veneer furniture, punk, disco, fibre-optic lamps, pineapple on a stick - and Abigail's Party. It's hard to think of another Play for Today that has permeated popular consciousness so much that, 25 years later, theatre-goers are quoting lines from it on the way in! It has even inspired a theme bar in London, where cocktails cost a tenner and the clientele is apparently 80 per cent male (you can draw your own conclusions about that). Of course, despite the title, the star of the show is not Abigail, but Beverly. Forever to be associated with Alison Steadman, Beverly is relentlessly 'on' all the time. Shallow, vain, bitterly disappointed with her choice of mate, she has entombed her humanity in social oneupmanship. And indeed, it is this absence of inner life, this infinite superficiality, that Lizzy McInnerny plays to grotesque perfection. It's almost as though there are invisible quotation-marks around her dialogue, as she plays Beverly playing the part of hostess. Anyone over the age of about 35 will find much to snigger at here, especially
in Jonathan Fensom's set. Indeed, I imagine sourcing that brown-and-gold-and-cream
starbursty carpet must have been pretty difficult, even although just
about everyone in my street had it when I was a kid. But the play should
- and I stress 'should' - be more than just a trip down the home-furnishings
aisle of memory lane. As Alexander Pope said, 'Satire is a glass in which
a man sees every face reflected but his own', and while we can enjoy feeling
superior about the ornaments and canapes, Mike Leigh's timeless slice
of surburban hell reeks of violence, (self)hatred and nihilism. It's a
stark choice: stop anesthetising ourselves with sex, consumerism and celeb
culture - or 'Nuther drink, Ange?' Theatre listings >
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