Celebrity reporter Aimee Seddon chats to actress Laura Rogers who plays Beverly Moss in Abigail's Party ahead of its arrival in Blackpool.
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00:00Hi, I'm Literary Reporter Amy Seddon and the iconic play, Abigail's Party, is on at the
00:07Blackpool Grand Theatre between Tuesday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 26th. I had the
00:13pleasure to chat to actress Laura Rogers, who plays the lead, Beverly Moss, to find
00:18out what she had to say next.
00:20I'm chatting to you because you're coming to Blackpool with Abigail's Party, so people
00:26who have no idea what that play is, could you please describe it in your own words?
00:31Yes, so it was written in, well, I say written, it was actually improvised originally in the
00:391970s, late 1970s, and a group of actors under the direction of Mike Lee put it on at Hampstead
00:50Theatre, and it was Alison Stedman who played Beverly originally, and then they, and it
00:58was totally improvised. It's basically your sort of worst party that you could ever possibly
01:06imagine. The mixture of guests are quite eclectic and in usual circumstances probably wouldn't
01:17really get on, and they're all trying really hard to get on, and it just goes pretty wrong
01:23from the beginning. So it's a comedy, it's really good fun. It's a dark comedy, so there
01:32are quite dark elements in the storytelling, but a lot of laughs as well. So Abigail never
01:42features in our production, or in any of the productions. Abigail is the daughter of one of
01:47the guests, and she's having a party a couple of hours away, and so in fact, yes, you never see
01:55Abigail, you just hear about her. How are you feeling about bringing Abigail's Party up to
02:00Blackpool? Oh, we're so excited. I've never been to Blackpool, I really can't wait to get there.
02:07I hear the theatre is beautiful, and I'm looking forward to going to the Pleasure Beach,
02:14and seeing all the sights, and of course it's where Strictly comes every year. I don't think
02:20we're on at the same time as Strictly, but also the illuminations. I've got loads of good
02:27tips of where I need to go and what I need to do, so we're hoping we get all the lovely audiences
02:32to come and see it. If you want a really fun night out, you should just definitely, definitely
02:37come along. So though you've not performed in Blackpool before, do you have an expectation
02:41of what the audiences are like? Yeah, well I hope they're going to be really good fun. I mean,
02:46I feel like the North, we've already done it in Newcastle, and the Northerners have a brilliant
02:53sense of humour, so we got such a warm reception from them, and so I'm just really excited to see
03:04how they receive it, really. People who haven't got tickets yet for Abigail Party, why should they?
03:12Well, I mean, for a start, it's not a very long show. I mean, I know that some people get put
03:19off if they think that a play is like three hours long. No, it's not. It's under two hours,
03:25and it's really good fun. You'll have a great laugh. It doesn't matter whether you're a teenager
03:32or whether you're, you know, what, it reaches every generation because I think people will be
03:36able to notice and recognise at least one of these characters that they see on stage, but it's just
03:43a sort of, a very entertaining night out at the theatre that doesn't require you. You can just
03:50sort of leave anything that you've experienced in the day behind and just go and be entertained
03:57for two hours.