Abigail's Party

Think lip-gloss, ‘flicks’, flares, funky wallpaper, cheesy-pineapple nibbles, LP records and lots of orange – and you’ve arrived in the 1970s! “Abigail’s Party”, written in 1977 by Mike Leigh, is a painfully comic play; a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the ‘70s. One British reviewer said, “Abigail’s Party” still ranks as the most painful hundred minutes in British comedy-drama.’ Typical of Mike Leigh’s plays and films, “Abigail’s Party” was originally developed through a lengthy improvisational process. It is the play that has been chosen by Lucinda Peterken to be the first production from the new Waiheke Theatre Company.

Set in ‘the London side of Essex’, Beverley Moss (played by Hayley Hailstone) invites her new neighbours, Tony (played by Mike Bell) and Angela (Lucinda Peterken), who moved into the road just two weeks ago, over for drinks. She has also invited her neighbour, Susan (Bridget Oakley-Stevens), whose fifteen-year-old daughter Abigail is holding a party back in their house. Beverley’s husband Laurence (Kim Whitaker) comes home late from work just before the guests arrive. The gathering, at first, epitomises the ‘cringeingly’ awkward, stiff and insensitive worst of the British middle classes but, as the alcohol flows, tongues are loosened and the obsessions, prejudices, and petty competitiveness of the group are ruthlessly exposed.

Tickets for “Abigail’s Party” are on sale at Shop the Rock for $15.