Review: ABIGAIL, The Space Theatre

Photo credit: Richard Hall

Narrating the tale of an accuser of the infamous Salem Witches, Abigail is the feminist retelling of this historical event’s aftermath, and its rich symbolic undercurrents for a contemporary  political sensibility. In this production however, Abigail manages to sidestep a properly dramatic interrogation of each of the issues yearning to be explored in its historiographic invention of an ‘imagined history’ that doesn’t quite deliver in its execution and conceptualisation.

Abigail (Laura Turner) and her companion Mercy (Lucy Sheree Cooper) arrive in Boston, Massachusetts, bewilderingly wide-eyed and hungry for the big city’s adventures, fresh from the  horrors of the Salem Witch Trials. As they search for room and board, they find unfortunate company in a morally bankrupt mistress of a boarding-house, and its inhabitants. What follows is a series of  unfortunate events that sees misogyny and abuse gratuitously proliferate but without a great deal of dramatic  commentary. 

Whilst many know that these abuses occurred, as they have throughout history; the shadow of the misogynistic mass execution of up to 200 ‘witches’ that directly precedes the play’s action hangs like an elephant in the room quite literally. Haunted by Solvi, a victim of Abigail’s accusatory transgressions that epitomises a stereotypically uncanny ‘witch’, we are left wanting for this trope to be turned on its head. Who were these persecuted women beyond their supernatural stereotypes? Surely this is the story desperate to be naturalistically retold?

A slightly too long running time that spans two acts leaves Abigail’s sparse dramatic action somewhat diluted and drawn out, without a real sense of a thrust at the heart of the story. The humanity of this hybrid cast of historical and fictitious personas is a little lost in their representations that rely on under-wrought (and at times over-wrought) characterisation. The script’s 21st century-isms are not a huge help, in this regard. The voices of these characters are decidedly contemporary, despite the stage being littered with colonial paraphernalia: modern slang and turns of phrase occasionally distracting from the immersion of the piece.

 Abigail is a play that feels as though it is striving for a sort of political naturalism; but lands in a middle-ground in its uncertainty of how to achieve its aims. Instead of serving the story, it feels  as though Abigail is working towards an imitation of ‘what theatre should be’, rather than what theatre should do. It has the potential to successfully present this intriguing historical series of events well, but this collaboration between Fury Theatre and The Asylum Players needs a little more development.

** Two stars

Reviewed by: Kane Taylor

Abigail plays at the Space Theatre until 7 May, with tickets available here.