Ecstasy (play)

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Ecstasy is a 1979 play by British writer Mike Leigh. It features six characters and follows four blue-collar friends living in a shabby area of London near Kilburn High Road. The central character is Jean, a suicidal garage attendant whose life is marked by unsatisfying relationships, heavy drinking, and abortions. Her friend Dawn, from Birmingham, returns with her husband Mick and his quiet friend Len to stay in Jean’s bleak bedsitter, and the second act builds to a dark, powerful party scene that reveals the characters’ despair.

The play opened at the Hampstead Theatre in London on 26 September 1979. The original production was designed by Alison Chitty, with Sheila Kelley as Jean, Roy as Roy, Rachel Davies as Val, Julie Walters as Dawn, Stephen Rea as Mick, and Jim Broadbent as Len. This was the first Leigh collaboration for Rea and Broadbent.

A new production directed by Leigh opened at Hampstead Theatre on 10 March 2011, starring Sian Brooke, Daniel Coonan, Claire-Louise Cordwell, Allen Leech, Sinead Matthews, and Craig Parkinson, and later transferred to the Duchess Theatre in Covent Garden on 12 April 2011.