Last night I went to see STG's (Strathclyde Theatre Group) latest production, which was of the classic 1970s comedy-drama Abigail's Party. This is a play I am very familiar with myself as I appeared in a production of it with my old drama group The Patter Merchants, which was nearly three years ago. So here's my thoughts on STG's production and bit more about the plot.
The play starts with a middle aged couple, Beverly Moss (played by Angela Strachan) and Laurance Moss (Donald Munro) who are having a drinks party for their new neighbours. Beverley is a rather domineering and controlling woman, and a bit of a flirt, while Laurence is an uptight workaholic estate agent, who is always out working (probably to avoid his wife!). Their neighbours are a young couple, Angela (Jennifer Ann Watt) and Tony (Nick Jones), who Beverley warmly greets, while Laurence superficially polite but at the same time quite dismissive of them. Angela is quite a sweet natured by somewhat naive and socially tactless young woman, who at certain points says the wrong things which offends her gruff and not so talkative husband Tony. Beverly also invites around their next door neighbour Susan (Judith Hastie) who is a rather reserved woman, who he is a recent divorcee and her daughter Abigail, is having a party next door. After the initial socially awkward initial conversation, the night soon unravels as the drink flows and things slowly but surely (as Laurnce would say!) get out of hand.
Abigail's Party is without a classic play and definitely one of my favourites, which I have very fond memories of myself from the production I was involved in, where I played Laurence (I also had to grow a tache for it too!). And STG have done a fine job in realising the play, and I really liked how they used their venue, the Brunswick Hotel, as they used the upper rooms in the Penthouse suite, and the set and props were all great, they even had a terrific old style music system with record player and tape player built in! Peter Lamb, the director, who I know quite well, has done a really good job with the play and staging, and nicely brought the differences in class, with Beverly and Laurene aspiring to be upper-middle class, while Angela and Tony appears as lower middle class. The social awkwardness of the play is one of the key elements as well and I thought that they conveyed that very well throughout.
Performance wise, the cast were all very good, and each part was very well cast too. Angela Strachan as Beverly, is essentially perfect for the role (although I couldn't help notice that she kept referring to her script which she held throughout!), as she played her with an almost predatory quality, who acts as the bubbly host, but at the same time she forcefully foists her opinions on her guests. Beverley also throughout keeps forcing her guests to have more drinks, and even for Angela and Tony to have cigarettes despite the fact they are trying to give up. Beverly also frequently argues with her husband Laurence, and while Laurence tries to have his say Beverly ultimately is the one in charge. Donald Munro as Laurence was excellent as he really conveyed Laurence's snobbish qualities, and unlike me he played the part a little more relaxed than I did, which I thought was a nice spin, rather than him being a neurotic mess. Jennifer Ann Watt was also really good as Angela, as she conveyed her sweet and naive nature very well, and she wore a great garish 70s outfit. Nick Jones too did a good job as the quiet and somewhat quick-tempered Tony, although his voice seemed to be at a louder register than everyone elses in the cast. And then there is Judith Hastie, who I knew quite well from my days in the Patter Merchants and from acting classes, and Judith was great as Susan, playing her as a rather mousy and polite woman, but basically would rather not be at the party, especially as the circumstances of the play worsen as they go on.
Mind you if I had to pick one or two negative qualities from the production then it would have to be that possibly at times, the play lacked a bit of pace at times. Also as I mentioned the actress Angela Strachan, while she had Beverly down pat, she clearly kept referring to her script, and while she was able to do this in an unobtrusive way, as a performer you really should know your lines inside and out by the time you are ready to go on and perform. And just maybe the play was a little low-key in its energy too, as I remember in the Patter Merchants production we all gave it laldy when he had too, and the climax where we are all frantic and screaming the house down. But in a way that's not a bad thing, as that's maybe one thing we could have done differently in our production at the time, probably brought down the hysteria and loudness a bit.
Regardless of all that, STG did a fine job with a classic play, and I wish them the best for the rest of the play's run.
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