Interview: Lily Dorment Chats About Bringing British Humor to American Audiences in ABIGAIL'S PARTY

By: Nov. 11, 2016
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Beginning performances tomorrow night at The Barrow Group, ABIGAIL'S PARTY is bringing a little slice of English life to New York City.

With a partnership with The Pond Theatre Company, a group that brings new British and Irish writing as well as revivals to NYC, The Barrow Group brings Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party to life again.

BroadwayWorld sat down with actress Lily Dorment about bringing British humor to NYC with Abigail's Party, her character and working The Barrow Group once again.

Alongside Dorment, the cast feature Colleen Clinton (Blue Bloods), Sarah Street (Law & Order), Nick Hetherington (Outside Mullingar) and John Pirkis (Daredevil).

Single tickets for ABIGAIL'S PARTY are priced at $25 and available at www.barrowgroup.org or by calling OvationTix at 866-811-4111. Memberships for The Barrow Group 2016/17 Season are also on sale now, beginning at $65. In addition to season memberships, The Barrow Group launched a Young Professionals Membership Group this year. Young Professionals have special nights to enjoy the season's shows, plus additional social events. Packages are available online at www.barrowgroup.org.

Check out the full BroadwayWorld interview with Lily Dorment below!

Can you tell us a little bit about ABIGAIL'S PARTY?

Sure! Abigail's Party is a play that takes place in the suburbs of London in 1977. It's about a couple by the name of Beverly and Lawrence who invite their new neighbors, Angela and Tony, over for a drink. They also invite their neighbor Sue, whose teenage daughter, Abigail, is having a party down the road.

How long have you been attached to the project and been working on it?

We started with early readings in late 2015 and we developed the project throughout this year.

How does your character of Angela fit into the world of Abigail's Party?

Ang, Angela, is the new neighbor of Beverly and Tony. She's trying to "keep up with the joneses" as they say. She romanticizes the relative comfort with which Beverly and Lawrence live. She covets their taste and their lifestyle.

She's kind of the outside looking in then?

Yeah a little bit. I think the interesting thing about Abigail's Party is that there are very specific nuances of class that exist in English society. it's really a lens into the subtle differences between different strands of the middle class in England.

Is Angela like any other character you've played? Or is she a new character altogether?

Yeah! Mike Leigh's characters are so unbelievably specific that it's just a complete joy to get to work on Angela. I think she's not the sharpest tool in the tool shed, but she has a very good heart. It's really fun to play a new character like that.

Going off of that, how is it working with Mike Leigh's words? He's got a very specific writing style.

Oh it's brilliant! It's so subtle and I think that one of the reasons we wanted to do this play with a mostly British cast is because I think those subtitles remind us of people we all grew up with or around. It's a very particular slice of English life that most of the cast is extremely familiar with having grown up in England. The language of Mike Leigh is something, I hope, we can bring to an American audience with an authentic voice.

How is it working with The Barrow Group again?

It's been fantastic. The Barrow Group is the artistic home of several of the cast members. It's a company who we all really admire and a community that we feel really connected to. It's been fantastic to work with them yet again. Truly amazing.

You have an incredible cast working beside you. How is it working with them to bring it to life?

Oh we have SO much fun. We've had many rehearsals that have ended in uncontrollable fits of laughter. It's a very closely knit cast. Although some of us have trained together, none of us have never worked together before. It's been a really fantastic project that's close to all of our hearts.

How have rehearsals been going now that your first performance is coming up?

They've been going well. This week has obviously been hard. We've been dealing with a little bit of shell-shock because of the world events. We've been trying to plow through and hope that we can bring some laughter and entertainment to New Yorkers.

Sounds like something we all need.

Yes totally.

Lily Dorment is a British actress and voiceover artist based in New York City. She earned her BA from Yale University and her master's degree from Columbia University. She trained at RADA and at The Barrow Group, and has performed on stages on both sides of the Atlantic. Lily spent 15 years working in the field of international public health and has extensive experience in fundraising, board development, program strategy and implementation.



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