Abigail’s Party – Hope Street Theatre
The Northern Comedy Theatre’s Abigail’s Party is another casualty of the closure of the Epstein.
Relocated to the Hope Street Theatre, a tiny, intimate auditorium of just 85 cramped seats, located incongruously between a Masonic Hall, displaying the ritual paraphernalia of set squares and compasses, and the excellent Liverpool Arts Bar, the audience are projected almost on to the stage itself. Yet this only serves to foster the claustrophobic, pressure-cooker effect that this play demands.
Devised in 1977 by Mike Leigh, the play observes the Classical Unities of time, action and place, depicting a drinks party thrown by the appalling Beverly (Kathryn Chambers) and her husband Laurence (Franklyn Jacks) for new neighbours Tony and Angela. Also present is Susan, who has been invited to...
