Abigail's Party

This was the television play that put Alison Steadman and director Mike Leigh on the map and in the consciousness of the British public. It proved to be a landmark in British drama due to the improvised nature of the piece. Leigh and Steadman were also married to each other from 1973 to 2001 and have both consistently produced acclaimed bodies of work throughout their careers in the 44 years since.

Abigail's Party is a tour de force for Steadman who plays Beverly, a nightmare dinner party host, who invites friends over for a drink while one of the guests' teenage daughters are having a party. Relationships get tested and things begin to unravel as the evening wears on in this acutely observed exercise in social manners.

From this you can see Leigh is an actor's director as he puts them and their raw emotions center stage, encouraging each actor to create their own character and manages to get nuances out of them that a confined script probably wouldn't have. The end result is a compelling, amusing and toe curling comedy drama that has stood the test of time, despite being firmly rooted in style to the 1970's when it was made.

Beverly thinks she is sophisticated and aspires to better things but in the process she shows no empathy for her stressed husband or sympathy for her neurotic neighbour, for her it's all about the facade and being something she is not.

It certainly left a big impression on the British public at the time as millions tuned in by default due to a strike on ITV so viewers had limited choice to what they could watch but what they found was a guilty pleasure that has been enjoyed by audiences ever since and remains in the BFI Top 20 TV programmes of all time.

Watching Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party is like jumping into the past in the Seventies, when the play takes place. It's about a supposedly enjoyable party that soon becomes a hilarious and tragic disaster. And all is due to the ambition of being part of the middle class. The play is a portrait of people of that time, but nonetheless its themes are really up-to-date. For example, everything and everyone must be at Beverly's command so you can guess that it is unsafe to be victims of the desires of people like the cold-hearted Beverly, because events could take the wrong turn. This charming film is blessed with very talented actors who develop very peculiar characters. I really recommend it because it is clever thanks to the analysis of social reality and at the same time you can enjoy yourself with a good laugh.

It seems superfluous to say anything about 'Abigail's Party', as it made such an impact when first shown on 'Play for Today', and continues to do so.

Mike Leigh moved on to devise and direct many feature films, always in collaboration with his actors. Then-wife Alison Steadman was a frequent collaborator, but this was the role which made her name. As Beverly she is truly horrendous, the typical embodiment of middle-class suburbia, with kitchen gadgets she doesn't know how to use and dubious taste in music (Demis Roussos, Tom Jones ...).

Abigail of course is never seen, but her party is heard as a background to Beverly and Laurence's soirée while worried mum Sue sits awkwardly with her constant top ups of gin and tonic. Neighbours Angela and Tony are an echo of the couple visiting George and Martha in 'Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?'

The genius of 'Abigail's Party' is its sharp dialogue, its acid wit, and the power it has to amuse us, make us cringe, and ultimately shock us. Unmissable and unforgettable.

Alison Steadman ... Beverly

Tim Stern ... Laurence

Janine Duvitski ... Angela

John Salthouse ... Tony

Harriet Reynolds ... Susan

Abigail's party is a tremendous piece of drama that was originally developed through a process of improvisation. It is hilariously funny but at the same time deeply moving and the tension created on stage is amongst the most painful I have ever witnessed. Mike Leigh, as a director, clearly has an amazing ability to achieve fantastic performances from his actors. The play, about an awkward drinks gathering, hosted by the atrocious Beverley (Alison Steadman), explores the intricacies of the social order in Britain and the pretentious aspirations of the lower middle class. With a heavy dose of Demis Rusoss, quite a few Gin an' Tonics, a cheesy pineapple stick and a dramatic climax - Abigail's Party is a much-watch. It may be a little dated but it still has a cult following and I hear that people today hold Abigail's Party parties:- So it must be good!

Mike Leigh's jet black comedy of manners shouldn't be reviewed as a film; strictly speaking, it's a video document of his own stage play, performed as theater. The play itself is an often brilliant one-act satire, charting the total disintegration of an intimate cocktail party controlled by an aggressively bourgeois hostess (Alison Steadman) and her ineffective husband. The escalating tensions between each guest (one of them exiled from her daughter Abigail's punk rock party, heard but never seen offstage) suggest a clever parody of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', blending acute social embarrassment with moments of absurd but often hilarious tragedy. Middle class envy and pretensions have rarely been savaged with such glee, and on a purely technical level it offers a fine example of how to film a play as a play, with the camera intruding only far enough onto the stage to capture every nuance of the performances.