On its 40th anniversary tour, Mike Leigh’s iconic comedy of dreadful aspirational suburbia still resounds with us. We love dysfunctional marriages. We love and laugh at the pretence of Margot in The Good Life or Hyacinth in Keeping Up Appearances. And even when in this play a main character actually dies onstage the audience howls with laughter at the situation.
Abigail’s Party, a play for stage and television, was devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. Described as “a suburban situation comedy of manners”, and a “satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class” that emerged in Britain in the 1970s it is perfect for screening in Brighton in 2017!
This highly anticipated swashbuckling farce with its new staging is directed by Mike (I’ll never direct an opera) Leigh, who made his operatic debut this evening. I liked his version, all geometric sets and ultra-simplistic colours from Alison Chitty, they worked well, softly gliding and sliding into and out of view giving a feeling of constant change while actually being severely minimalistic. The costumes were in period and silly enough to bring smiles while maintaining the sense of propriety and dignity that is the fulcrum for a good Victorian joke.
