Abigails Party Context

Authors Avatar

     Mike Leigh, who is the playwright of Abigail’s party, was born in 1943. He was brought up in a Jewish immigrant family in the over populated, working class area of Salford, Lancashire. He trained at RADA as an actor and then went on to East 15 Acting School to start his directing skills. It was here that Leigh met Alison Steadman, whom he married in 1973 and had two sons with.

     At school, Leigh felt he didn’t fit in because he was very literary. I think this is a link to the character of Laurence, whom is very like Leigh. Leigh’s father was a doctor and openly disapproved of his son’s interest in drama and theatre. Leigh writes the character of Laurence as a man whose intellect is unappreciated. I think this is a reflection of Leigh’s feelings as a young man.

     Leigh’s films and plays offer a ‘slice of life realism’ usually choosing down to earth subjects. Abigail’s Party mocks the aspirations and tastes of the new middle class that emerged in Britain in the 1970s. Leigh obviously feels some animosity towards middle class people as, by status, they are perceived to be better than he, a working class Jew. But intellectually and culturally, he is superior. The play was aired on BBC, a popular channel for the British middle class. It can only be assumed that Leigh enjoyed the idea of the very people he criticised in the play being the ones to watch it as evening entertainment.

Join now!

     The seventies was a decade of great political upheaval. In 1970 the Conservative Party were brought to power under leadership of Edward Heath and his term was plagued with a number of strikes in almost every profession and his plan to ration electricity for businesses and factories lead to a huge strike by the miners and rail and power unions and, eventually, to the decline of his position as Prime Minister. Labour was voted in again in 1976, under Harold Wilson, and then James Callaghan. But the Governments failure to deal with the rising unemployment problem paved ...

This is a preview of the whole essay