Abigail's Party (1977)

Directed by

Mike Leigh

Genre

comedy, drama, tv movie

Country

United Kingdom

Runtime

1h 47m

Rated

PG

Rating

7.4 of 10 from 46 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In 1970s suburban London, an overbearing hostess throws a cocktail party for her new neighbors and her husband. Social pretensions and buried resentments come out over drinks and nibbles.

cringe-comedytensesatiricalclaustrophobictalkydryly funnyawkwardperiod feel

What happens

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 play developed in lengthy improvisations during which Mike Leigh explored the characters with the actors, but did not always reveal the incidents that would occur during the play. 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. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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