Abigail’s Party
Last Update 11-Mar-2008
by - Mike Leigh
From 7th to 12th November 2005
Presented by - Nonentities (A)Location - Main HouseStandard Ticket PricesCurtain Up 7.30pm |
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Description
Described as a 'savage satire on England's middle-class', Abigail’s Party tells the story of Beverly and Laurence holding a get-together. They have invited new neighbours, Angela and Tony and the recently divorced Sue whose daughter Abigail is having a party. The alcohol flows, the snide comments bite and the tensions rise in this comedy masterpiece; culminating in a shocking climax.
Set in the 1970’s when every house had fibre optic lamps, coal-effect fires, spider plants, sideboards and room dividers, when the middle classes battled it out to have the cheesiest pineapple chunks, the snazziest soda-siphon or the most expensive three-piece suites. The play is best known for the BBC television version starring Alison Steadman. We invite you to join the party.
Director's Cut
First performed in 1977 at the Hampstead theatre, London, “Abigail’s Party” will perhaps be more generally known as a T.V. “Play for Today”, for Alison Steadman’s brilliant performance and Mike Leigh’s writing and direction. Leigh used and continues to use, improvisational techniques to ensure his actors know their characters inside out, and can use and recognise how each would react in a variety of situations. He then draws on the company's ideas about their character’s “speech, language, attitudes, emotions,
interactions, et al”, together. After much long hard work a working script miraculously emerges. Amateurs coming to the finished and polished script may only, within the constraints of time and occasional work commitments, scrape the surface of each character. Yet such is Leigh’s
craftsmanship that we hope we have succeeded in
conveying, through his use of humour and underlying
pathos, the hidden subtext that controls the action.