| Abigail's
Party |
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| Kitsch classic:
Abigail's Party with Elizabeth Berrington as Beverly
and Steffan Rhodri as Tony |
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Our
theatre critic Mark Shenton welcomes a revival of Mike Leigh's modern
classic...
video
inclusive
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Abigail's
Party (Whitehall Theatre)
Best known for the BBC television version starring Alison Steadman,
Mike Leigh's play finally returns to its stage origins after
a gap of 25 years.
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VIDEO
EXCLUSIVE:
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Entertainment
reporter Amanda Hussain goes behind the scenes to
talk to Elizabeth Berrington, who plays the monstrous
Beverly and Abigail's Party director David Grindley
watch
here
(3,686 Kb/ 02'10")
Real
Player required
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Newly transferred
to the New Ambassadors, the play invites us back into the home of
Beverly and Laurence, where she offers her guests cheese-and-pineapple
chunks on cocktail sticks and he suffers an even more indigestible
mix of her undisguised contempt and mutual loathing.
While the play triggers the happy laughter of associations as we
remember the original, it also darkens progressively as the evening
wears on.
What remains is
a morbidly fascinating and minutely observed character study in
suburban lives where despair lurks beneath the bonhomie.
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