#abigailsparty

The new “Abigail’s Party” generation:   Won’t drink tap water! Bottle or spritz Has to be “bubbly” or “fizz”! Just call it what it bloody is! No school disco – High School Prom Hummers & Limos, dresses cost a bomb Can’t cook,won’t cook,dine out posh Must keep up wi ‘t Jones’s, what tosh Hairdressing Queens & Estate Agent Kings Footballer WAG envy, Nando’s for wings Covered…

I never like to give bad reviews… but here we go.

All my life, I have attended the Norwich Theatre Royal and I have never been treated so appallingly by a Theatre Usher!

I was really looking forward to Abigail’s Party because I’ve heard so many great things about Mike Leigh and his work – especially at college whilst we were studying Devised Theatre Pieces. And my inner Fangirl was dead excited to see Amanda Abbington again, as, of course, she plays Mary Watson in BBC’s Sherlock. The last time I saw & met her was at Sherlocked: The Event UK 2016, when I had my photo op with her (pictures are on my Instagram), however, I was all dressed up in my Steam!Lock Mycroft Cosplay and was barely recognisable.

First of all, when we got seated in-house, it was almost empty! I know we saw the matinée show of the last day that they were there for – but this was ridiculous! The seats we chose were the cheapest we could get at the time therefore we were right on the end of our row – which was near the very back of the top row, so, evidentially, our view was really poor. My mum & I tried to do a sneaky and sit where the more expensive seats were – honestly, not to get freebies, but because my legs were squished and I had almost little to no room – I was getting a lot of cramp from where I was sitting and I was only there for 5 minutes – God knows how much pain I would’ve been in by the end of the show! Obviously, one of the Ushers came down to see our tickets and we tried to explain that I couldn’t be that high because of the heat could trigger me to have a seizure and I can’t be in pain because of my ME/CFS – but she was very rude and arrogant to both of us because we didn’t have the more expensive ticket. Yes, I know theatre rules and that they’re only doing their job etc. but she said ‘You may be blocking someone else’s view and it’s not fair on the people behind you who’s paid more money for their ticket.’ Ok, I get that, but there was 5 WHOLE ROWS COMPLETELY EMPTY! And we even argued the point of ‘There’s no-one here!’, even downstairs wasn’t even half-full! We’re literally at 5 minutes to show-time and no-one has turned up for ANY of the 6 empty rows and we’re still being asked to move back to where we were sitting. So, we go back to our row and we ask the Usher who’s at the entrance of where we came from we then asked her what can we do and her answer was to stick us at the other end of our row so we’re by the damn stairs! But at least we had a *slightly* better view and I was under the air conditioning.

That alone, really did, ruin mum’s mood and my afternoon.

I know it was our fault for buying cheap seats, but no-one turned up and what annoyed me the most is that other people moved during the show and/or interval! It’s just Sod’s Law that we’re the ones to get asked about tickets! I actually saw one couple move 3 times!

On to ‘Abigail’s Party’… What can I say about it? Umm…. Disappointing, perhaps? Sub-Standard? Dreadful? Not to sound like a kill-joy, but it was probably one of the worst shows I’ve seen next to The Witches of Eastwick by the Norfolk and Norwich Operatic Society (Review Coming Soon), which was also at Norwich Theatre Royal – of which I actually left 20 minutes in! But more on that on the review.

This was my first Mike Leigh Play I have ever watched, even though I’ve been told to – I’ve never studied him or watched any of his films or read any of the scripts – so I really didn’t know what to expect at all. I didn’t do any research on Abigail’s Party or watch the film like I did with The Boys In The Band – so I was very ill-equipped with knowledge.

This is the best review I can give without giving away *too* many spoilers for those who haven’t watched the film/play or read the script yet:

Look, if it wasn’t for Amanda – I would’ve gone home either at the interval or before. The Acting was superb – don’t get me wrong, Amanda was fabulous as Beverly – a very vicious-sweet party host and everyone else were incredibly talented actors – fulfilling their roles and executing their lines with fire and ice – electrifying emotion! However, there wasn’t any story… for me, nothing happened – they all just stood there and talked like parents having a chin-wag outside the school gates waiting to pick up their kid. For me, it was boring, when I watch a play – I expect something interesting to happen not just people sitting in a front with some music on and drinking alcohol – if I want that I’ll go to a Party myself.

I have mixed feelings about this play. Yes, it’s funny in some places, courtesy of Amanda’s dancing, and there are some cracking lines! Yet, I feel a little let down because Mike Leigh’s writing has this huge hype about him and his plays and I personally feel quite deflated about the script and it’s not because it’s an old script and the language is different because I LOVE old & classic plays and musicals like The Boys In The Band, The Dresser & Shakespeare, whilst The Rocky Horror Show is my favourite show I have seen – so far and they’re all old and/or classic plays, so I have nothing against the age of a production. Also, I feel like the director, Sarah Esdaile did a really poor job... because generally… apart from Beverly, no-one moved… there was no life, I know everyone is supposed to be scared of Beverly – but that’s not the point – I also felt like that the characters weren’t played as if they were real people either, they were just… waiting for their next line or queue, to me, it didn’t flow naturally.

On a positive note: I really LOVED the staging and set! I have a good eye for set and scenery – I really like how productions are designed and put together, I wasn’t bad at Scenic Construction at College either – not that I enjoyed Resistant Materials Class at School or would take it up as an Occupation or take a course on it, but I like to see production sets and take pictures because it gives me ideas for Harvey Milk The Musical and my other productions I am currently working on. More to the point – I loved how the set of Beverly’s House opened and POPPED out like a children’s Pop-Up Book – very inspiring!

Everything was made better once the show was over (that sounds kind-of passive-aggressive, sorry) and when I made my way over to Stage Door and met Amanda and the rest of the Cast. She was an actual Angel – so beautiful and kind! She signed my Program and Sherlocked: The Event UK Poster from last year. She gave me the best hug I’ve ever had, I was so happy – I was lost for words which is so rare for me as I’m a chatter box (I even cried…just a teeny bit) and she said she remembers me and loved my Cosplay!  

I’m a bit shocked that this production is going to be in the West End (either late this year or early next year), but I can say – I won’t be willingly seeing it again.

It might be the fact that both I and mum were in a bad mood because of how the Usher treated us or it may not have been my cup-of-tea or so much hype about the show on Twitter and Instagram etc. or whatever… I didn’t enjoy the show as much as I wanted to.

 ALL PICTURES ARE ON MY INSTAGRAM.

 Show Rating: 2/5

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