Abigail's Party is a play for stage and television written 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 would not always reveal the incidents that would occur during the play.

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Performances

The television version was abridged from over two hours to 100 minutes with only one major change; the record played by Beverly in the original stage production at the Hampstead Theatre was "Light My Fire" by José Feliciano and in the TV production it was "For Ever and Ever" by Demis Roussos. It was shown as part of the BBC anthology series, Play for Today .

Original cast

The original play starred Alison Steadman as Beverly, and Tim Stern as her husband Laurence. They are holding a drinks party for their new neighbours Angela (Janine Duvitski), and her husband Tony (John Salthouse). They also invite Susan (Thelma Whiteley), another neighbour. Abigail herself is never seen – she is Susan's 15-year-old daughter, who is holding her first teenage party next door. For the television version the original cast reprised their roles, with the exception of Thelma Whiteley, who declined to re-appear and was subsequently replaced by Harriet Reynolds.

Each of the original cast largely devised the back story to their character. John Salthouse brought his early career as a footballer with Crystal Palace FC to that of Tony. According to Leigh, discussions at the improvised sessions included whether Beverly's name should have a third 'e' or not. The most complex relationship was worked out between Angela and Tony, the background being that Tony fell for Angela when she was his nurse in hospital. Little of this is disclosed during the narrative, although something of it becomes apparent when Angela steps in to care first for Sue, then the stricken Laurence, and the centre of power between the couple starts to shift noticeably.

Characters

• Beverly Moss - A department store make-up representative, she has failed her driving test a few times. During the play, she flirts with Tony and is always trying to impress her guests. She considers her taste in music (Jose Feliciano/Demis Roussos, Tom Jones) and art (kitsch erotica) to be every bit as good as that of her husband. Immensely proud of her home, she nonetheless admits that she cannot use the gadgets in her kitchen. Beverly throughout the night offers her guests drinks and cigarettes (despite the fact that Tony and Angela have recently given up), which they usually refuse but end up taking due to her being unable to take no for an answer. Beverly effectively forces her guests to agree with her on most issues, for instance on the music they should listen to, or whether olives should be served, in each instance using their apparent consensus to score points with her husband. Despite her 'sophisticated' tastes and carefully groomed appearance, she was memorably described by Alan Bennett as having "shoulders like a docker, with a walk to match."
• Laurence Moss - Estate agent Laurence is Beverly's husband, and the pair frequently argue. He aspires to the finer things in life: leather-bound Shakespeare (which he admits he never reads), prints of Van Gogh and Lowry paintings, and Beethoven, which he forces on his guests at unfortunate moments. He seems powerless to compete with Beverly's more flamboyant persona, and compensates by working too much, as his wife points out on several occasions. He considers a brisk handshake to be correct practice after a dance. While Lawrence starts off behaving normally during the party, as he becomes increasingly hen-pecked by his wife, he begins to act in a more neurotic manner, to the point where he too becomes an annoyance to his guests.
• Angela - Nurse Tony's wife. Appears very meek. Angela is somewhat childlike, unintelligent and tactless (much like Steadman's character in a previous Leigh play, Nuts in May). She can't drive, as Tony doesn't want her to. Interested in the mundane and commonplace, much to her husband's annoyance, she comes into her own when Sue feels queasy and after Laurence suffers a heart attack.
• Tony - He works in computers and used to play professional football for Crystal Palace F.C. but it "didn't work out". His feelings towards Angela are mixed: on the one hand he is grateful that she cared for him when he was injured; on the other hand she is a constant reminder of the injury that wrecked his footballing career. Tony is quiet throughout most of the play, usually appearing uneasy and giving one-word answers, but towards the end of the play he becomes somewhat irate and quick-tempered, particularly with his wife. Beverly flirts with him in the second half of the play, much to Laurence's annoyance.
• Susan Lawson - Sue was getting divorced at the same time the other characters were getting married, as kindly pointed out by Angela. She is a quiet character who doesn't really have the courage to say no. She is the only female visibly not 'dressed-up' for the gathering. She clearly would rather be elsewhere. Throughout the play, Lawrence attempts to find common ground with her. As originally cast, she towers over the diminutive Laurence, with Beverly's exhortations for her to dance with him only compounding her awkwardness.

Plot

Beverly Moss invites her new neighbours, Angela and Tony, over for drinks. She has also asked her divorced neighbour Susan, whose fifteen-year-old daughter Abigail is holding a party back in their house. Beverly's husband Laurence comes home late from work, just before the guests arrive. 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. As Beverly serves more drinks and the alcohol takes effect, Beverly flirts more and more overtly with Tony, as Laurence sits impotently by. After a tirade about art, Laurence suffers a fatal heart attack. Within this simple framework, all of the obsessions, prejudices, fears and petty competitiveness of the protagonists are ruthlessly exposed.

Class

Susan represents the upper middle-class, Beverly and Laurence the aspirational middle middle-class and Tony and Angela the "new arrivals" and lower middle-class. The comedy arises from Beverly's inept attempts to help Angela and Tony, on account of her perceived class superiority, and Susan, on account of the fact that she is (still) married.

Critical response

Channel 4's reviewer said: "Abigail's Party still ranks as the most painful hundred minutes in British comedy-drama."

In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Abigail's Party was placed 11th. It also appeared in a Radio Times poll to find the top 40 greatest TV shows on British television, published in August 2003.

Several critics (notably Tom Paulin ^[1]) have responded more negatively, noting that Abigail's Party appears to represent a middle-class schadenfreude , with the only true middle class character, Susan, looking on at the antics of the couples with disdain. Nonetheless Leigh has responded that none of this prevents the characters (Beverly and Laurence in particular) reflecting the real-life behaviours of aspiring couples in mid 1970s suburbia. Other aspects of the narrative which appear to conform to this stereotype have become 'correct practice' but the naive storing of a red wine,a beaujolais, in the refrigerator ironically is the correct practice for beaujolais nueveau. ^[2]

Revival

In 2003 the TV version was released on a BBC video and DVD. In the same year the play was staged in London's West End, with Elizabeth Berrington as Beverly. The play was revived in Wolverhampton at the Grand Theatre (2005), and at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter (2006).

Trivia

• The play features an argument between Beverly and Lawrence over the artistic merit of the memorable 1970s painting Wings of Love by Steven Pearson, popular yet controversial at the time due to its portrayal of a naked man and woman with a giant swan.
• The popularity of the play right from its original broadcast on BBC 1 is thought to have been due to the rivalling channel ITV not broadcasting at the time due to a strike, leaving viewers with a choice of either BBC 1 or BBC 2 to watch that evening.

See also

• Teleplay
• Musician and composer, Annie Locke , who was the Production Manager on the televised version of Abigail's Party.

References

1. BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Review | Abigail's Party
2. Mike Leigh: Cruel chronicler of suburbia's nasty secrets and lies - People, News - Independent.co.uk