Actor Alice De-Warrenne has become a time traveller – catapulted back to 1977 every night – and she’s loving every moment of it.
There’s no Tardis or De Lorean involved – Alice is part of the gifted cast of Abigail’s Party, Mike Leigh’s classic comedy, which is now touring the UK, including a stop at Eden Court in Inverness next week.
“It’s amazing to immerse myself in a different era that I haven’t lived through,” said the actor who is playing sweet but tactless Angela in this new production of a play that premiered 15 years before she was born.
“Every time the designer would bring something into the room I would say, ‘oh, my granny had these weird green plates’ or ‘my granny spoke about this’, or I would flick through the Good Housekeeping magazines on the set.
“It’s a time I didn’t live through, but I’ve seen glimpses of it now and its fun getting into it. I mean, Angela, in the play, talks about buying a house on the outskirts of London for £21,000. That’s hard to get my head around.”
Tensions rise in living room drama
Abigail’s Party is a living room drama, where aspiring hosts Beverley and Laurence invite neighbours Angela, Tony and Sue for a drinks party while Sue’s daughter, Abigail, has a teenage party down the road.
As the alcohol flows, flirting ensues and tensions rise, reaching a dramatic climax in a sharply observed comedy of social mores that made Leigh’s play an instant hit when it was first staged 1977 before going on to be watched by a record 16 million viewers when aired as a BBC Play For Today.
Alice said: “It’s funny, but it’s also awkward. It’s that kind of cringe comedy where you just want to sit down in your chair and disappear, but you can’t look away because it’s so cringeworthy and funny to watch.
“It’s just a mismatch of different characters put together for an evening to see what happens.”
Although it has now turned 46 years old, Alice says Abigail’s Party is as relevant as ever thanks to the genius of Leigh’s writing.
Play holds up a mirror
“It’s one of the most performed plays in the UK,” she said. “It is so relatable because it’s about relationships, marriage and conflict.
“Although it’s set in a different era it’s about the things we go through now. It’s like Mike Leigh is holding up a big mirror to the audience and saying: ‘Look at these funny things you care about… you talk about the weather, what car you’ve got, how much you spent on your house, what you do at the weekend’. It’s all the things we still care about.”
And Alice says it is the perfectly drawn characters which keep audiences flocking to theatres across the country including, she hopes, Eden Court.
“Mike Leigh’s characters are so three-dimensional. Just when you think you are watching a stereotype, they surprise you and do something completely different,” she said.
“I think everyone sees themselves in the characters. They watch the play and come away thinking ‘I’m definitely a bit of a Laurence’ or ‘my mum’s just like Angie’. The characters have stood the test of time.”
The art of acting tipsy
Alice is loving playing Angela, one of her favourite characters in the play.
“She’s the sort of person who just says whatever pops into her head and doesn’t think about how her words might affect others. So she’ll ask Sue, who is a very reserved middle class character, ‘are you separated or divorced… how was your childbirth?’ all these things that make Sue so uncomfortable.
“It’s so funny because Angela doesn’t realise, to her these are just normal questions to ask.”
But the flipside of her ditzy nature is professional side as a nurse, which she can suddenly flick on and take control of situation.
Alice said of the most challenging parts of the role is acting drunk – “without making it difficult to watch” – as Angela downs nine double gin and tonics over the course of the evening.
“It’s all about the eyes and losing and regaining focus,” said Alice, on the art of acting tipsy. “When you’re drunk, you tend to focus on smaller things around you, so it might be looking at a glass more or staring off into space.”
Alice is looking forward to arriving in Inverness and inviting Eden Court audiences to join her time travels to Abigail’s Party
“I hope they enjoy it. I hope anyone who has lived through the 70s will feel a lot of nostalgia and anyone who hasn’t live through the 70s will enjoy looking at a little time capsule of that era.
“And I hope they can laugh when they recognise themselves in the characters on stage.”
Abigail’s Party is at Eden Court from Wednesday May 17 to Saturday May 20. For information and tickets visit eden-court.co.uk or call 01463 234 234.