The Royal Exchange, Manchester – until 24 May 2025
Reviewed by Sal E Marino
5*****
Mike Leigh’s classic cult tragicomedy, Abigail’s Party, has now taken residence at Manchester’s crown jewel, The Royal Exchange Theatre until the 24th of May. And it’s a must-see, unmissable – a play you become emersed in (quite literally) due to the unique round and revolving stage. Brilliant director Natalie Abrahami has relocated Abigail’s Party from the Essex suburbs to the Northwest and she has clearly done her research along with set designer, Peter Butler. Butler has brought Beverly (Kym Marsh) and Laurence’s (Graeme Hawley) home alive to the extent that as an audience member, you really feel like you’re with them at their drinks party because it’s so intimate! What starts as an awkward and supposably informal evening hosted by Beverly (who has chosen to wear an extremely flamboyant and ‘long’ gown) and Laurence Moss for their neighbours Sue (Tupele Dorgu), Angela (Yasmin Taheri) and Tony (Kyle Rowe), just builds and builds upon drink after drink and layer upon layer of tension. Each character starts to unravel and reveal their less favourable foibles.
The play takes place in the mid-70s, just a short time after the divorce law was reformed and so ‘splitting up’ was still viewed a scandal to the masses. Divorce was not a path many took at that time and most would rather continue to “live in the same house for 20 years without speaking” like Ange’s parents. One wonders, if it had been less of a controversial act and if more had braved the wrath (covered by sympathy) of the curtain twitchers, like Sue, if Laurence and Beverly would have stayed together? Maybe the play’s fatal ending would never have occurred? But then we wouldn’t be able to become a fly on the wall and witness their dysfunctional marriage (with all its juicy, tense and dramatic ingredients) accumulate to maximum boiling point and spill over to create an inevitable, melodramatic meltdown mess! Melodramatic is almost an understatement as to what unfolds as the stage spins faster, the action gets hotter and the music gets louder!
The opening scene bursts with clashing colours (Bev’s eye-popping dress and bright home décor), a huge gaudy and sparkly central lamp, disco beats and a kaleidoscope of lights. Shimmying along to the seductive opening of Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love you Baby’, Beverly sparks up a cigarette, takes centre stage and owns it. She is the queen of her home (and I suspect the estate she lives on), the epitome of the era’s consumerism, has all the latest mod cons (that she doesn’t know how to fully work) and has everything a woman of her time wants. She flounces, she flirts, finds fault in everything her husband does but she is fabulous and (using her favourite word) “fantastic” to watch.
It’s easy to think and accuse Beverly of being the villain and the monster of the play – especially at the beginning as Laurence appears as the hard-working, hen-pecked husband but as things develop, his less favourable traits start to leak out too. Later, he tries to make an ally of Sue who presents as middle class and educated by attempting to engage in high-brow conversation with her about the arts. He does this to belittle Ange and Tony, suggesting they are of a lower class and that Tony doesn’t read. In a further discussion about ‘art’ Laurence publicly calls Beverly “ignorant” and his sinister shadow side lets slip when he grabs her arm to stop her taking further charge of the music. Tony, shy with one-word responses, also unfolds his dark side with his “nasty” behaviour towards his wife. We discover that he won’t allow her to learn to drive and has to grant her his permission when she wants a cigarette. The other two guests Ange and Sue are opposites in so many ways – Ange child-like and saying whatever comes into her head (until the very end when she is the most responsible and level-headed) and Sue, so very reserved and private.
A central theme is that despite appearing to ‘have it all’ in monetary and consumerism terms, Beverly is bored. One wonders if this whole soiree has been orchestrated under the guise of asking Sue round due to Abigail having a party and so that Ange and Tony can “break the ice” with other neighbours, just so that she can ‘play’? Play the field with Tony who she’s spotted across the street getting into his car for work and taken a fancy to and play with Laurence in a ping pong game of sniping. She is the iconic suburban bored housewife of the time and even jokes about wife swapping. As the drinks stack up and inhibitions are released: Sue throws up, Laurence gets more erratic, Ange more eccentric and Beverly, as she initiates the dancing and grabs Tony, more erotic (Bev style erotic).
In the end, as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony (Laurence’s choice not Beverly’s) blasts out, everything that was building erupts! In the tragic chaos, Beverly still acts like the perfect hostess but also the most inappropriate by offering drinks and cigarettes at exactly the wrong time! She is hilarious even at the bleakest of times. Kym Marsh has had a hard act to follow in the film’s Alison Steadman’s footsteps but she manages it excellently. Her Northwest Bev is brilliant and most compelling. I want to be at her parties to just to watch her in action because she so outrageously unapologetic even at her most low and worst. She’ll take your man right in front of your very eyes (if she’s plied him with enough alcohol)! This play, set in the 1970s, does appeal to all and could start a retro revival as my 16-year-old daughter said after the show, “I want a party with those cheese ‘n’ pineapple stick things”. The set, costumes and the quirky stage at The Royal Exchange add even more brilliance to this amazing production but obviously, kudos must be given to the incredible cast! Kym Marsh, Graeme Hawley, Kyle Rowe, Tupele Dorgu and Yasmin Taheri all embody and master Mike Leigh’s characters perfectly. It’s so good you’ll want to book a second time and go and ‘party’ with Beverly again! I do, I loved it! I’m still intrigued by one thing though even after seeing the film numerous times years ago – what did Tony actually get up to when he went to check on ‘Abigail’s Party’?