Alison Steadman
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Abigail's Steadman Returns for Hampstead Louis

Alison Steadman (pictured) will return next month to north London’s Hampstead Theatre, where she made her name more than 25 years ago with Abigail’s Party. She’ll star in the world premiere of Simon Mendes da Costa’s Losing Louis, which runs from 24 January to 19 February 2005 (previews from 20 January).

Only Mendes da Costa’s second fully staged play, Losing Louis follows Table for One, his first play, which was staged at London’s fringe The Hen and Chickens in 2001. In the new comedy, secrets that refuse to be buried erupt as family members are brought together to face it out in the bedroom where all the confusion began.

Since her seminal role as excruciating hostess Beverly in Mike Leigh’s 1977 Hampstead production of Abigail’s Party, which was televised for the BBC’s Play for Today, Steadman’s many stage credits have included Joking Apart, Kafka's Dick, Maydays, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, When We Are Married, The Provok'd Wife, Entertaining Mr Sloane, The Memory of Water, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Marvin’s Room and The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband. On screen, she’s appeared in Fat Friends, Pride and Prejudice, Shirley Valentine, Life Is Sweet and Topsy Turvy.

Steadman is joined in the cast of Losing Louis by Lynda Bellingham (TV’s At Home with the Braithwaites, All Creatures Great and Small), Jason Durr (TV’s Heartbeat, seen earlier this year in Follow My Leader at Hampstead), David Horovitch (TV’s Foyle’s War, The Lucky Ones, An Experiment with an Air-Pump at Hampstead) and Brian Protheroe (Three Sisters, Pericles, The Sisters Rosensweig).

Losing Louis is directed by Robin Lefevre and designed by Liz Ascroft, with lighting by Mick Hughes. It’s supported by the Peter Wolff Theatre Trust and theatreshare plc.

- by Terri Paddock

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