So pleased to see you, said Beverley, the hostess from hell at the beginning of last night's soire. For a moment, I wondered if she'd broken character and was talking to the audience.

It was indeed nice, after the debacle of some of the Priestley's recent productions, to see people filling the first few rows.

Last night's crowd got exactly what they wanted, too - a broad farce, played in northern accents and served up with more ham than the meat counter at Morrison's.

But that isn't, if we're being picky, what Mike Leigh's celebrated comedy of Seventies manners is about.

Familiarity has taken the edge off it. What was once perceptive satire has become village-hall farce.

The director Simon Saunders (also the Priestley's chairman and last night's Tony) has chosen to set the piece not in the Seventies but not exactly in the present either. The result is a vagueness that makes social subtlety difficult if not impossible - rather defeating the point of the play, I would have thought.

The barnstorming performances were headed by Louise Sharp as Beverley - the role originally created by and for Alison Steadman. Louise tried successfully to not simply impersonate the original, although there was a little of Claire Rayner in her delivery ("Would you like another drink, love? Would you? Mmm?")

Abigail's Party runs until Saturday, and if the next five houses laugh as much as last night's, I'm sure Mike Leigh won't mind a few liberties.

David Behrens

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.