After offering boisterous plays about confused urban and suburban American twentysomethings (This Is Our Youth, The Flatted Fifth), Off-Broadway's The New Group has returned to the wellspring of its first productions: working class Britain. The company premiered with Andrew After Dark, followed by playwright/filmmaker Mike Leigh's Ecstasy, and now offers Leigh's Goose-Pimples.

Leigh's dark comedy, staged by company artistic director Scott Elliott, began previews Nov. 28 and opened Dec. 18. The play has polarized audiences with its unpleasant characters and darkly funny situations, but strongly positive reviews have helped push it to wider attention. Goose-Pimples will therefore end its run at the Judith Anderson Theatre Jan. 18, and reopen that Friday, Jan. 23, at the Intar Theatre (also on Theatre Row) for a run through March 1.

First staged at the Hampstead and Garrick Theatres in London, Goose- Pimples looks at upwardly-mobile working classniks in early 1980s London.

Starring in Goose-Pimples are Sam Rockwell, Caroline Seymour (Ecstasy, Present Laughter), Adam Alexi-Malle (Titanic), Max Baker and Gilli Foss. Designing the show are Kevin Price (set), Eric Becker (costumes), Jan Kroeze (lighting) and Raymond D. Schilke (sound).

Elliott also directed the New Group's mounting of Stephen Bill's Curtains, a comedy/drama about euthanasia in a middle-class English family. For tickets ($15-$30) and information on Goose-Pimples call (212) 279-4200.

-- By David Lefkowitz