Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party, which has been revived at the Hampstead Theatre a quarter of a century after it was first staged there (before becoming a cult television play) is to extend its run by six weeks, running to Nov. 9, with a short break for another piece, Counting to Infinity.
It is hoped that Abigail's Party will transfer to a West End theatre the following month, though this has yet to be confirmed. The play follows the course of an evening's horrendous drinks party in an upwardly mobile couple's suburban home. In the course of the action the two couples involved prove to be deeply dysfunctional, and the play ends in catastrophe.
The box office takings for this play have been anything but catastrophic, however, and Abigail's Party has enabled the old Hampstead Theatre (replaced soon by a high-tech new one) to leave on a high.
—by Theatrenow
