Abigail’s Party
Theatre Royal Stratford East, London

AN excellent new production of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party stars Tamzin Outhwaite, who lights up the stage throughout this excellent performance at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East.

Set and costume designer, Peter McKintosh’s static set, encapsulates 1970s middle-class living. The flock wallpaper, record player and cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks. Outhwaite dominates, playing Beverly, who was so memorably portrayed in the original stage and TV productions by Alison Steadman. Outhwaite’s version is a more stylish, lithe characterisation, gracefully sweeping around the set. One minute flirting, the next chastising. But always seeming not far from meltdown.

The play opens with Outhwaite dancing on the couch in a scene that could make the audience think they’d arrived at the wrong venue, maybe Abba Voyage, at the arena down the road? Outhwaite, though, retains much of Steadman’s trademark rhetoric, with the drawn out act-u-ally, a feature of many sentences.