Review: ABIGAIL'S 3RD BIRTHDAY PARTY, Greenside @Infirmary Street

Picture everything you'd come to expect from a uni night out; Friendships ended and rekindled, lying, cheating, love. Now picture that but rather than a sweaty nightclub you are in a suburban home's back garden and you and your mates from uni are all adults now and one of them has a child. Terrifying, right?

It is this exact idea that lays the premise for the latest Fringe show from Napier University Drama Society's (or NUDS for short) Abigail's 3rd Birthday Party.

David and Evie (Fraser Nickolls and Fi Montanari, respectively, with perfect mum and dad energy) are the hosts for the day and open the show nervously awaiting their guests, a stomach-churning feeling anyone who has ever hosted a party can relate to.

Being an amateur production the execution of the show is simple. The stage setting is bare, the lighting is nothing too eye-catching, but being a university show it is totally understandable. Furthermore, the lack of a fancy set up draws more attention to the actual content of it's show such as the writing, directing and the performances.

As guests begin to pile into David and Evie's house, much like the arrival of the dwarves to Bilbo Baggins' home in The Hobbit. As they pile in, we quickly get to know their characters attributes. There's the likes of Mikey (Gregor Kelly, whose emotional outbursts will have you jumping in your seat before then succumbing to laughter), the man-child who is yet to grow up, Xander (Jason Lynass, who perfectly balances his characters over the top comedy with the right amount of emotion), the successful company man who won't shut up about his job, and Jack (Ryan Farquharson, who encapsulates both the smug arrogance and painful lack of self-awareness needed for a character of this magnitude) the villain of the piece.

The script, written by Lilith Allen, cleverly uses these single attributes of the characters in order to make the characters appear as one dimensional before slowly developing the characters more as the show goes on.

It is a smart move, allowing the first half of the show to be filled primarily with comedy (including some excellent recurring jokes such as Evie's non-alcoholic drink, who invited Jack and what it is that Xander's company actually does) before then packing a surprising emotional punch in the second half.

There are numerous stories in the show which pack this emotional punch such as the friendships of Mikey and David, as well as Rosa and Xander, yet the emotional backbone of the story very much comes from the story of Thomas (Sam Gower, perhaps the best performance of the show).

Relatively quiet throughout the show, the mystery of Thomas remains in the background yet it is the mystery of why he is acting the way he is that has us engaged, hoping for an answer. Yet the answer is not what it may seem.

It is that surprise and unpredictability that the show captures which makes it as good a show as it is. Jokes, dialogue, storylines that we all think will go one way go the other, and the fun 60 minute comedy that we expect from Abigail's 3rd Birthday Party brings with it a surprising emotional punch.

Abigail's 3rd Birthday Party isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but the chaos of a child's third birthday party that was somehow captured by directors Lilith Allen and Heather Dunnett makes it an impressive and funny show that is definitely worth the price of the ticket.

Abigail's 3rd Birthday Party runs until the 20th of August.

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