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algoyo
Reviews
Play for Today: Abigail's Party (1977)
Gin--Vodka--Brandy!
The best bit (for me) is when Beverley is putting on Donna Summer's "Love to Love You" and fixing herself a drink at the beginning of the play. She puts the needle on the record and at the same time she opens the drinks cabinet's sliding door directly above her head with her spare hand in a smooth, perfectly performed robotic motion. She then sits to consume her drink and, with the look of a Basilisk, surveys her domain. It is her appearance which really startles. Her red dress is of the finest polyester, but exposes her flesh in unflattering ways. She sometimes looks like a jellyfish, with the tendrils flapping away, or like some monster who has made a dress out of the leftover bits of red meat of her victims. Either way, you are in no doubt that Beverley is the hostess with the mostest. You know you are in for trouble when her husband Lawrence comes in and she pipes up "Hi". It's done in such a dissatisfied, unloving way, that you can see she's going to kill him one way or another.