30 May – 3 June
Back in the day of Mad Men, the thrusting – and not too particular about the morality of it all – advertising gurus, it was said you could sell anything using sex. Something similar could be said today about ABBA and entertainment. ABBA fans will recognize the title of the play and will have their interest piqued. Although the plot of the play revolves around starting an ABBA tribute group this is a play about ‘coming out’ and perhaps more importantly, friendship. Back in 1974 when they started to invade the airwaves after the Eurovision success of Waterloo, it was considered uncool, or even worse a kind of social suicide to admit to being a fan of such blatantly popular music. Added to which the costumes the group wore were, in certain circles at least, considered to be the height of bad taste. Ian Hallard’s play is a metaphor for the equally risky business of ‘coming out’ as gay in the seventies and eighties and the crucial importance of friendship in the delicate and potentially traumatic process. The play hints, not too subtly, that the acceptance of ABBA as being a laudable cultural phenomenon somehow tracks the general acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community that has always been part of society, yet hidden in plain sight. Society has indeed moved on.
In Private Lives, Noël Coward, with tongue firmly in cheek, quipped, ‘It’s extraordinary how potent cheap music is’. How much truth lies hidden in cheap jokes. Ian Hallard’s character, Peter, is an unapologetic fan whose life has been threaded onto an ABBA soundtrack. He finds himself reacquainted with an old school friend, Edward (James Bradshaw) who is on the verge of cheating on his husband when they meet via Grindr. When Peter’s friend, Sally (Donna Berlin) talks about a problem with a theatre production she is working on, Edward suggests they use the opportunity to form a gender-swap ABBA tribute act; the boys are girls and vice versa. The play limps slowly along for the first act only to spring to life in act two when the dialogue becomes crisper and the snake-in-the-grass character of Christian (Andrew Horton) appears and temptress-like sets about turning heads and testing relationships. He succeeds on both counts, with his duplicity alone being his undoing. The chastened men learn their lesson, falling back on their friendship to see them through. The whole thing is wrapped up in the final walk down number of the play’s title, complete with gold lamé capes and stacked heels.
Rose Shalloo as Jodie and Sara Crowe as Mrs Campbell complete the motley cast with nicely observed characters: Ms Shalloo with a squeaky, garrulous no-hoper and Ms Crowe with a well-judged wallflower out of her comfort zone.
★★★☆☆ Graham Wyles, 31 May 2023
Photo credit: Darren Bell
