Theatre review: Abigail's Party

Mike Leigh's name might always be brought up in relation to a kind of bleak, gritty realism, but it's his 1977 black comedy Abigail's Party that remains his most famous, beloved, and frequently-revived play. Of course we never see Abigail or her party - that's going on a few doors down in a street in suburban Essex. Instead we're at what's meant to be a much more sophisticated, adult soirée at the home of Beverley (Tamzin Outhwaite) and Laurence (Kevin Bishop,) who've asked round new neighbours Angela (Lauren Patel) and Tony (Omar Malik) to welcome them to the neighbourhood. An awkward fifth wheel in the group is Abigail's mother Sue (Pandora Colin,) who's been invited along so she can escape the teenage chaos going on in her own house. But with Beverley in charge things don't stay much calmer here for long.Plying her guests with bottomless gin and tonics and necking two herself for every one she gives them, Beverley launches into a passive-aggressive evening of humblebragging,…