Abigail’s Party
Abigail’s Party is a play for stage and television, devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. The original production starred Alison Steadman as Beverly, and Tim Stern as her husband Laurence.
About Abigail’s Party in brief
Abigail’s Party is a play for stage and television, devised and directed in 1977 by Mike Leigh. It is a suburban situation comedy of manners, and a satire on the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. The production opened in April 1977 at the Hampstead Theatre, and returned after its initial run in the summer of 1977, for 104 performances in all. A recording was arranged at the BBC as a Play for Today, produced by Margaret Matheson for BBC Scotland and transmitted in November 1977. The original production starred Alison Steadman as Beverly, and Tim Stern as her husband Laurence. They are holding a drinks party for their new neighbours, Angela and her husband Tony. They also invite Susan, another neighbour. Abigail herself is never seen—she is Susan’s 15-year-old daughter, who is holding her first teenager party next door.
The gathering starts off in a stiff, insensitive, British middle-class way as the virtual strangers tentatively gather, until Beverly and Laurence start sniping at each other. After a tirade by Beverly on showing off her print Wings of Love, Laurence suffers a fatal heart attack. Beverly and Tony, Tony and Angela, all speak with an Essex or Estuary accent. The terrain is \”the London side of Essex\”, \”theoretical Romford\” according to Leigh. The BBC version was a film of a play, rather than a film in its own right, about which Leigh commented: “This is not a film. It’s a stage play that was wheeled into a television studio. It�’s slightly compromised as a play,. However, as a piece of craft, it’s simply appalling. Not for the play or its content”
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This page is based on the article Abigail’s Party published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 09, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
