ABIGAIL’S PARTY. Comedy by Mike Leigh. Directed by Lynn Moss. Set: Nigel Sweet. Lighting: Gary Fargher. Sound: Allegra Whitehouse. Presented by The Masque Theatre Players. At the Masque Theatre for a short season.
SHEILA CHISHOLM reviews
Billed a comedy of bad manners, Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party could easily be sub-titled “what not to say in polite society.” That’s because Angela Cooper’s (Tash Futeran’s) clangers are beyond belief. Innocently she asks questions not even a best friend would dare. Opening her brown eyes wide, nodding her head as though confirming each disastrous comment, Futeran twitters away regardless.
Abigail is third guest Susan Lawson’s (Jacqui Bloomer’s) unseen daughter. It’s after her the play is titled. And although Susan professes to trust her 15 year old daughter, Angela’s suggestive suggestions regarding teenage party behaviour completely undermined poor Susan’s confidence. As did Beverley’s insistence on recharging her glass.
Witty, snappy dialogue
The year is 1977. Action occurs when Beverley Moss (Candice Burgess) and husband Laurence (Mark Wilkes) invite bubbly Angela and monosyllabic husband Tony (Vusi Mngomezulu) for drinks. They are all neighbours, but fall into different social classes.
Divorced Susan belongs to the dour, stiff-upper lip class. Beverley and Laurence are aiming for middle class. Angela and Tony don’t fit either category. Glamorous Beverley believes plying her guests with drinks mark her as a good hostess. Unfortunately she forgets it’s bad manners to press alcohol on guests who’ve declined any more. So too is it bad form to nag and belittle her husband… in front of guests. This she continually does to an obviously stressed, pill-popping, Laurence while simultaneously flirting with tall, handsome Tony. Only three years married, he’s a man long bored by his wife’s mindless chattering. This leaves him not averse to Beverley’s advances.
Mike Leigh’s witty, snappy dialogue eloquently captures different values of English society. In a way similar to Noel Coward or Oscar Wilde he mocks the upper classes as well as social climbers’ pretentiousness.
In her cast director Lynn Moss had an ideal quintet – a fivesome which she directed (virtually) faultlessly. Only when Beverley spoke upstage, back to the audience, did her voice fail to carry. Neither could the music played be heard – a pity as it added insight on the Moss’s unsteady marriage.
Packed with fun and laughter, it’s unexpected climax suggested we take a hard look at what we say and how we say it. That’s what makes Abigail’s Party a worthwhile literary work. Pity the run wasn’t longer.
What: Abigail’s Party
Where: Masque Theatre, 37 Main Road Muizenberg, Cape Town
Box Office: 021 788 1898
Web: http://www.masquetheatre.co.za
WS
