Before The Party

Considering the brilliance of the structure and writing in Rodney Ackland’s multi-layered and bitingly honest comedy Before the Party, one wonders just how it could be that the late playwright remains a relative unknown among his peers. Perhaps his savage brand of truth may have cut a little too close to the bone for many in the upper middle class echelons of 1930’s and post-war Britain.

Adelaide’s Independent Theatre is currently staging Before the Party and has created a production that is sure to hold its own amongst the best comedies seen in Adelaide community theatre during the past year.

Set on a 1947 summer afternoon and evening in Surrey, the socially aware Skinner family are preparing to head off to a party, one that may be attended by influential people who could help facilitate patriarch Aubrey Skinner’s ambitions to stand as a Tory MP. The Skinners include Aubrey’s vain and silly wife Blanche, along with their three daughters-recently widowed Laura, her snidely jealous spinster sister Kathleen and their sibling Susan, who is still a child. Attending the party with Laura will be close friend David Marshall, who is of lesser social standing than the Skinners and barely tolerated by Laura’s parents.

Ructions begin occurring downstairs among the kitchen staff and not only does this throw a spanner in the preparations, but against accepted social convention, widow Laura refuses to dress in mourning black for the party. As the tension rises pre and post party, unexpected and dreadful family secrets are revealed, all of which combine to unravel the best-laid social and life plans of this pretentious and intensely amoral family.

The action takes place in the beautifully furnished bed-sitting room of Laura Skinner. In this Independent Theatre production the intricately detailed and period-authentic setting is superbly created. 

Since the company’s inception in 1984, founding member David Roach has acted in most of Independent Theatre’s more than one hundred shows. He epitomises the casting approach of this company, in that it has a stable of actors for its shows and doesn’t feel the need to spread the casting net much beyond this. Despite the talent of actors such as Roach, this strategy is risky because it can potentially be a stretch for audiences to keep on seeing freshness in the same actors’ performances for each new show. 

However, Roach has created a sublime and original character in Aubrey Skinner. Roach embodies a frenetically uptight man who is totally out of his depth; a man beset by a galloping migraine as all the pretence and privilege he holds dear is potentially at threat due to new family revelations. A fantastic performance.

Bronwyn Ruciak is hysterically funny as Aubrey’s selfish and at times almost unhinged wife Blanche, who can convince herself that painful facts are not true, simply by saying so. The energy Ruciak puts into the role is wonderful and enhances her character.

It is very difficult to play a character for whom audiences have zero sympathy from the very beginning, but Laura Antoniazzi is terrific in her nuanced and finely controlled portrayal of Kathleen Skinner, the xenophobic, bitter and sniping spinster sister. Antoniazzi’s facial expressions, posture and restless stage presence combine to generate an authentic and riveting performance.

Madeleine Herd is very good as Laura, the daughter who appears sweet and centred, untouched by the carelessly amoral attitudes of her parents, but who has a darker side to her character.

The venomous sibling rivalry between Kathleen and Laura is very well done.

Another Independent Theatre regular, Will Cox gives an excellent performance as Laura’s love interest, David Marshall.

Newcomer to Independent Theatre, Jenna Bezuidenhout steals every scene she’s in. This mid-teenage actor effortlessly manages to have the audience believe she’s considerably younger as she gives a wonderful performance as the youngest Skinner daughter, Susan. She brilliantly conveys the innocent and enquiring child in Susan while showing the character’s burgeoning lack of empathy, a trait common to all the Skinners.

It’s good to see widely experienced veteran actor Myra Waddell back on stage. Her portrayal of stoic Nanny, the embodiment of reason in a manic household, is very fine.

In terms of the acting, most adult females in the Skinner family are by nature shrill women and in a frenetic state much of the time. Shrillness is very difficult to portray, but should not require an actor to shriek. Performances in this play may be even better should the actors always keep this in mind.

One minor quibble with the lighting is that despite people going in and out of Kathleen’s adjacent bedroom, light never shows in the glassed section above her door when anyone is in there; quite noticeable, but does not overly detract from an excellent production.

Costumes are gorgeous and authentic for the period.

Before the Party is very funny, but it’s also a dark and brutally honest portrayal of the innate ugliness of some in the privileged class who, unlike ordinary people, seem able to remain immune from the consequences of their actions.

In the hands of Director Rob Croser, Independent Theatre’s production is one no Adelaide theatre lover should miss.

Lesley Reed