Abigails Party

Abigail's Party is a play for stage and television, devised and directed by Mike Leigh in 1977. A suburban situation comedy of manners, it satirises the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. Leigh built it out of lengthy improvisations, exploring the characters with his actors without always revealing in advance what would happen to them. The production opened at the Hampstead Theatre in April 1977 and returned after that initial run in the summer, giving 104 performances in all; a recording was made at the BBC as a Play for Today, produced by Margaret Matheson for BBC Scotland and transmitted that November.