Before the Party

Synopsis

The war is over and the Skinner family are trying to return to normal. If only the blasted Government weren't such a nuisance about the rations and Cook could get some more of those delicious delicacies. With daughter Laura returned from Africa, widowed but not alone, they prepare for the latest social gathering. Amidst the never-ending whirl of hats and dresses and below stairs skirmishes, Laura reveals a shocking secret that threatens to ruin more than one party on the climb to social success.

Our Review:

2 April 2013

Set in the hinterland between the end of World War Two and rationing coming to its miserable conclusion, Rodney Ackland’s Before The Party is a portrait of a ‘typical’ middle-class family with a little too much money, not enough manners and a big heaving secret levered smack bang into the middle of things.

It’s about class and prejudice, morals and relationships, hypocrisy and honesty. It focuses on what happens when Katherine Parkinson’s Laura returns to her family home, sans her former husband and in love with a new man, the slightly mysterious and rather fun David (an ...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 2 May 2013:

I have not come across the work of Rodney Ackland before which is slightly surprising as he was born in neighbouring Westcliff. Before the Party is a Rattiganesque comedy, closest to After the Dance, but with a much sharper satirical edge. Matthew Dunster's production comes perilously close to parody rather than satire and the appalling Skinners are charicatures for who it is difficult to have any sympathy, even the unfortunate Laura, apart from the youngest daughter Susan who is clearly destined for a life of problems. The acting is universally superb with Katherine Parkinson alternately brittle and determined, Michelle Terry a tightly wound mass of malevolence and Stella Gonet glorioulsy over the top as the hilariously snobbish mother. I'm sure I shouldn't have been but as they poured over Who's Who I was reminded of the Middletons. Although the production is far from perfect the play itself provides a very funny portrait of post-war middle class pretensions and might signal a revival of more of Ackland's neglected work....

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