Mike Leigh is a great observer of working and lower middle-class life and best known these days for films such as Vera Drake and Another Year; but he had a big success in the theatre in the late seventies with Abigail’s Party and Ecstasy which were premiered at Hampstead. His scripts are developed through improvisations with the actors.
The first act is horrible: a combination of joyless sex and violence. The setting is a tiny bed-sit in Kilburn which is rented by a lonely young woman who works in a petrol station. The second act, unexpectedly, is notable for its heart and essential decency. She shares an evening at home with her friends, an Irish builder and his wife, and his best mate. All they do is just sit around, booze, chat, smoke and sing; and that is it. Leigh and his actors (a fine ensemble) are extraordinarily real and convincing.