Tamzin Outhwaite interview: Abigail’s Party (The Times)

The former EastEnders star on playing Beverly in Abigail’s Party, her love of Stephen Sondheim and looking at Van Goghs in Amsterdam

My favourite play
Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh because I’m so deep in it. The cast improvised for ten weeks before it was first performed [at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1977], so my character Beverly has a lot of Alison Steadman from the original production in it. There’s a lot of repetition, which makes the lines hard to learn, but wonderful to play with. It’s about a suburban household and Beverly manages to make even the most banal thing sound extremely important. She’s really dark, and that’s a joy to act…