Mike Leigh's play Abigail's Party comes to The Kings Theatre, Southsea on its UK tour | Interview

Written by Mike Leigh, this blackly humorous examination of class and social mores has continued to hold a significant place in popular culture. A national tour visits The Kings Theatre in Southsea from August 9-12.

The play centres around a drinks party held by Beverly with her new neighbours, while the unseen teenager Abigail holds a party next door.

In this five-hander, Alice De-Warrenne plays the mousy role of Angela, originally played by Janine Duvitski.

"It's been really fun,’ says Alice. “The ’70s weren't something I lived through but the minute we began rehearsals, when our set designer would bring things in, we'd be like: “My grandma had those green plates!” Or, “We had that vinyl flooring in a house we used to live in!” It's been really cool stepping back into the ’70s and immersing ourselves in the time. Obviously some of the themes are a bit outdated – there's undertones of racism and classism, but those do still exist in our society, sadly.

It's been fun to learn about the period – Ang bought a house for £21,000 on the outskirts of London, something I could never imagine!”

Alice only first saw the play when the casting came up, and “loved it.”

“I've tried not to watch it too much since because it would be really hard not to just copy Janine because she's so iconic. I've taken some bits from her like her kind of droning voice – she's meant to be annoying and meant to be a bit grating – but I've tried to make her my own as well.”

And with the cast having been together since March, they have become a close-knit company – and have embraced the play’s improvised roots.

"It's really nice to work along people who are so talented. We still keep it fresh every night, where someone will do something different and it's hard not to laugh sometimes.

"Obviously the words are set, but we play around with the way we deliver them, or the actions we do, or the things we choose to do as characters, like suddenly stuff our face with crisps, or something, there's a bit of freedom there. But you can really tell it was improvised when it was written as the language is so naturalistic. There's loads of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. It's lovely to do something that feels so natural.”

The cast have been noticing different responses to the play from different elements of the audience too.

“It's funny, when we get the audiences come in who've seen it before and know what's coming and they laugh before the joke comes sometimes, and there are people who lived through the time and get the references. Like the perfume Youth Dew – that gets a huge laugh, and none of us got it. It completely went over our heads until the opening night, and then it got this huge laugh we were like, what's that? So we had to go look it up and realised it was a really famous perfume of the time.

“And then you get a younger audience and you get a different response from them. It's still so relevant though – it's a bit like The Office with the cringe-comedy where you don't want to look but you have to. There's something in it for everyone.”

It has also represented a big change for Alice – her previous job was as the puppeteer and voice of Peppa Pig in the stage version of the popular children’s TV show.

“Both characters have annoying voices, so that's something...” she laughs. “I did a lot of kids theatre and puppetry before this, which I still love, but it's nice to do something more adult and something my friends and family can come and watch without having to find a random child to bring with them.

"I really enjoy puppetry and got into this weird niche of doing kids' voices for a while. You get so used to not looking at you and looking at the thing you're manipulating, so now where everyone's looking at me, it feels completely different – it's refreshing."

For tickets go to kingsportsmouth.co.uk.