Written by: Mike Leigh
Directed by: Nadia Fall
With astonishingly accurate orange and brown decor and a soundtrack to match, Nadia Fall’s new adaptation of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party takes us on a convincing journey back to the 1970s. The approach seems to be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” in a production that stays wholly faithful to the original, not trying to update anything for modern audiences, and on the contrary playing the anachronisms for maximum nostalgia value and impact.
Tamsin Outhwaite shines as Beverley, the bawdy hostess who thinks she knows exactly what everyone needs to have a good time – namely, lots of alcohol and cigarettes. She and her long-suffering husband Laurence (Kevin Bishop) have invited the neighbours round for a drink. As soon as Tony (Omar Malik) and Angela (Lauren Patel) arrive, it’s clear we’re in for a real cringefest as Beverley flirts with Tony and strings along the impressionable Angela, who just wants to make friends with her neighbours. Newly-divorced Sue (Pandora Colin), whose daughter Abigail is having a party next door, makes up the numbers.
Whilst the humour relies on the cringy awkwardness of small talk in a living room setting, the acting is on the camped-up, over-the-top side. Lauren Patel’s Angela in particular speaks in the constant sing-song cadence of someone desperate to please and blissfully ignorant of how ridiculous they are coming across. And to great effect too – almost every line she speaks brings laughs from the audience. Sue is more uptight, anxious about her daughter’s teenage rampage, trying desperately to decline all offers of cocktails and party food.
What makes the play really work are the moments of darkness. Beverley and Laurence see themselves as better than their neighbours. Brief mention is made of Tony’s ethnicity and he is treated as an exotic novelty by Beverley who reveals his footballer’s legs and dances inappropriately with him. There’s the suggestion that their new neighbours might be bringing the tone of the street down. Beverley has a motormouth air of superiority, and she says exactly what she wants, holding court like the landlady in a West-end pub, not getting any clapback from either her submissive husband or her oblivious neighbours.
The current political climate in this country makes the little classist and xenophobic digs of the play particularly palpable. Beverley has what could be seen as an anti-woke agenda, bemoaning women’s lib and the permissive society, espousing terrible opinions on teen dating. She is a fascinating character, at once laughably un-self-aware (especially in her gatekeeping of taste) and matriarchically powerful in this little slice of society. The production brings out the poetry in the everyday, scratching at what lies just below the surface, letting the ugliness bubble up between hilarious dialogue that seems only to have matured in the time since it was first performed.
Runs until 11 July 2026
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Reviews Hub Score8
