Mike Leigh is one of all time favorite British Directors. Whilst studying Drama at college this was my first intro to this man and his work. We studied the comedy TV show that is 'Abigail’s Party'. It was broadcast by the BBC originally and came out first on DVD in 2003. This has to be one of the best Mike Leigh works and it’s his most famous for those of you that don't know about it, the show was quite a success in the 90's. I feel it really defines him as a director.
The play is based around improvisation, as is the majority of Mike Leigh’s work. The characters are also easily recognizable and relatable a bit like Eastenders is today. Almost every character you can either relate to yourself or you know some one whether it’s a neighbor/friend/family member who has some sort of obvious similarities like the characters. Mike Leigh gave the actors a simple plot or synopsis and few scripted lines but then it was the actor’s jobs to develop it. The actors were taught to go and thoroughly research their characters before hand. This would involve actually going to work in their scenarios have a daily routine basically really go in and live/dress like based upon their character brief. For example whilst I was studying drama we created a play that was similar to Abigail’s party and our chosen characters were based upon people we knew at the time. I based mine upon big old women called 'Linda' who I then worked with at a call centre whilst at college. Linda had big smoky glasses, wore clothes from the 70's, smoked about 100 fags a day, constantly huffed and puffed, smelt rather bad, and had what looked like un brushed/un washed hair that was huge. I would analyze Linda whilst at work, and slowly took note of her physical attributes her characteristics not just visual and then slowly started to develop these myself when at home or at college. It was very fun and a real insight into I guess for me then how the other half live. This is exactly what the characters did in this play, which I think you can really notice. Their acting quality is at a very high standard. Its not like a actor getting a script and reading it, learning the lines etc.its really based more on character research. Another example of this is Rennie Zellweger in Bridget Jones diaries; she had to put on the weight and went to work in a normal 9-5 job in an office in London.
Please see some information on 'Abigail's Party' below
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 satireon 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 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 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.
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