Amanda Abbington’s new play When it Happens to You has received rave reviews from critics following its press night on Tuesday, with the actress being praised for “expertly balancing humour and deep sadness” in her performance.
The star took to the stage at the Park Theatre despite the Strictly Come Dancing scandal surrounding her allegations against professional Giovanni Pernice.
Amanda’s new play, directed by Jez Bond, follows her role as Tara in the true story of a mother trying to hold her family together after a devastating event changes the course of their lives.
When it Happens to You was written by Tawni O’Dell and is based on her own experience following the abuse her daughter suffered in New York. The cast includes Rosie Day as Esme, Miles Molan as Connor and Tok Stephen in multiple roles.
Here, MailOnline rounds up what critics have to say about Amanda’s new acting project…
Amanda Abbington’s new play When it Happens to You has received rave reviews from critics following its press night on Tuesday, with the actress being praised for “expertly balancing humour and deep sadness” in her performance.
The star took to the Park Theatre stage despite the Strictly Come Dancing scandal surrounding her allegations against professional Giovanni Pernice (pictured performing on July 31)
The Telegraph
Ben Lawrence
Abbington plays a watchful and perceptive matriarch, who is unable to be “the provider of love” for her children after her daughter, Esme, is raped. It is an accomplished performance, with Abbington deftly balancing humour and deep sadness, brightening up Jez Bond’s otherwise underpowered production.
Abbington has a firm grip on the material, with Rosie Day and Miles Molan, as her children, failing to extract anything interesting from their two-dimensional characters. Day in particular is given very little to work with as Esme goes from victim to self-destructive catastrophe with little psychological guidance from O’Dell to guide her. Tok Stephen, in a variety of roles including that of Ethan, Tara’s privileged lover, fares little better.
The Guardian
Chris Wiegand
In a stylised, erratic opening sequence, the play establishes a pattern of flashbacks backwards and forwards so that the raw anguish of the events of the moment is tempered by a reflective tone. This creates a contrast not only in the dialogue but also in Abbington’s physical performance: Tara gestures as if trying to impose order amid the torment, while narrating these events retrospectively with a furrowed focus.
Jez Bond’s 90-minute, intermission-free production has the incongruous pace of a thriller, with abrupt changes in lighting by Sherry Coenen and choppy bursts of sound by Melanie Wilson. All of this can distract from O’Dell’s script, which is designed as a corrective to such empty phrases as “finding closure” and “starting again.” The play pertinently highlights the long-term effects of sexual assault for survivors and their loved ones. Its message remains essential, even if the medium is flawed.
online news
Fiona Mountford
Amanda plays a central role in this strangely unpotent four-character play by American writer Tawni O’Dell, based on O’Dell’s own gruelling family experience. It’s impossible to shake the suspicion that this material would work far better as an autobiography than a piece of theatre; as it is, the play runs 90 minutes, and not because of its subject matter. Abbington is a pillar of strength throughout, acting as a quasi-narrator and addressing us directly as she recounts a 3am phone call with devastating news about her daughter Esme (Rosie Day).
As for the actress herself, she can be expected to feel sufficiently well looked after on this production in contrast to her struggles on Strictly – credits for the creative team include mental health support, as well as a wellbeing professional on the production.
The times
Nancy Durrant
A few clumsy digressions aside, the script moves along at a fast clip; it’s even funny. Abbington has a warmth and ease that holds the attention: she sells this at a high price. Of course, being O’Dell’s avatar, Tara also has most of the best lines.
A devastating revelation in the final act is shocking, but the statistics we are left with, spewed out in controlled rage and anguish by Abbington – that one in four women has been raped, and that this is a conservative estimate – make clear how horribly quotidian this family’s story is. I left feeling empty and anxious. I tried not to walk home alone.
When it Happens to You was written by Tawni O’Dell and is based on her own experience following the assault of her daughter in New York. The cast includes Rosie Day as Esme, Miles Molan as Connor and Tok Stephen in multiple roles (the cast will be photographed on July 31).
Time is over
Abbington is achingly good as Tara, combining anger and vulnerability as her character struggles not only to help her daughter, but also to confront the impact the rape has on herself. It’s an unsentimental, internalized and suddenly fierce performance.
She uses the play’s dark narrative sarcasm as a coping mechanism. And when the play takes a breath and slows down to a long final scene that reveals something devastatingly unsurprising, she sustains that moment with a searing sense of honesty and supplication. As a woman speaking about the actions of men, she makes the “liveness” of the theater count in an electrifying way.
Stage
Dave Fargnoli
Powerful performances propel this UK premiere of Tawni O’Dell’s frank, fact-based account of the aftermath of sexual assault.
Amanda Abbington gives a powerful and highly accurate performance as the narrator Tara, a character based on and created by O’Dell but given a new name for this production. Abbington is utterly convincing as the seemingly tough and self-assured mother, who hides her doubts behind a veneer of superiority and uses her sharp wit as a defense mechanism. But Abbington reveals powerful feelings stirring beneath the surface, chief among them pain and outrage.
What’s on stage?
Alun’s hood
Abbington is magnificent. She’s resilient and resourceful, until trauma and guilt render those positive attributes no longer within her reach. She has an emotional availability that feels entirely organic, and a commanding presence that’s both reassuring and formidable. She’s the beating heart of the show.
Day’s Esme is also terrific: her hunched posture, vacant eyes and lifeless, dangling arms capture with heartbreaking accuracy the body language of someone who has all but given up. Her angry outbursts are frighteningly convincing.
Broadway World
Josh Maughan
O’Dell’s triumphant script is further illuminated by the play’s excellent cast.
Amanda Abbington gives a masterclass in acting as Tara. She is acrobatic in her performance; her heartbreak captivated me. Rosie Day, Miles Molan and Tok Stephen are constantly involved and form a machine around Abbington.
Director Jez Bond is responsible for this well-oiled machine. His direction, complemented by Melanie Wilson’s vibrant sound design, is slick, thought-provoking, and meticulous. It’s very clever, though not too clever for its own good. Every moment is considered and becomes almost clinical. While it works for the most part, at times I felt it removed necessary emotion from the dialogue and didn’t allow the scenes to have the punch they deserved.
