Originally seen at the Hampstead Theatre in 1977 — and where it reopened in 2002, a quarter of a century later — Abigail's Party follows a ghastly upwardly-mobile group of people in deepest suburbia over the course of an evening, while the daughter of one of them throws a teenage party next door It is currently playing at the New Ambassador's. The play turned Alison Steadman (already established as an actress) into a star, and Elizabeth Berrington has achieved the seemingly impossible — taking a role entirely identified with another actress and triumphantly turned it into her own.
