Abigail's Party (1977) on Netflix
Beverley and Laurence Moss invite their new neighbors, Angela and Tony, over for drinks. Their neighbor Susan joins them, while Susan's teenage daughter Abigail is hosting a party next door.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.9/102,570 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
Beverley Moss is holding a drinks party at her home. She has asked Angela and Tony, who moved in two weeks earlier, along with Susan, a longer-standing neighbor whose fifteen-year-old daughter Abigail is having a party of her own that evening. Laurence, Beverley's husband, works as an estate agent and gets home just before the guests arrive. Susan has brought wine and has not yet eaten, expecting supper rather than an evening of drinks. Angela is a nurse, and Tony works with computers and once played professional football. The two have recently given up cigarettes and alcohol, and Beverley keeps pressing both on them. The near-strangers gather stiffly at first, until Laurence and Beverley begin arguing in front of the company as the drinks go round.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Abigail's Party (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- For the BBC television version, Mike Leigh had to replace nearly all the music with artists recorded on British labels, in case the BBC sold the play to the United States. José Feliciano's "Light My Fire" became Demis Roussos's 1976 hit "Forever and Ever", and Elvis Presley gave way to Tom Jones.
- Mike Leigh built Abigail's Party through lengthy improvisations with the actors, and did not always tell them what incidents would occur during the play.
- The original cast largely devised their own characters' back stories: John Salthouse drew on his early career as a footballer with Crystal Palace for Tony, and the improvised sessions debated whether Beverley's name should have a third "e".
- In 1985 the pop band ABC sampled Beverley's dialogue from the play on a 12" remix of their single "Vanity Kills", called the Abigails Party Mix, on the album How to Be a ... Zillionaire!
