In Celebration

Three brothers come back to the town where they were born. It is a mining town in Yorkshire. Their parents are marking their fortieth wedding anniversary. All three are educated and have built other lives. Their father worked in the mine all his life. On the evening of the celebration old matters are opened. One of the brothers is angry and mocking. Another is the sort who minds his career. The youngest says little. As the night goes on the talk turns hard. What the family has kept hidden comes out. The account comes from a play by David Storey. Lindsay Anderson had directed the same play on stage. Alan Bates and Brian Cox take the leads, with James Bolam and Bill Owen also in the cast, in Lindsay Anderson’s American and British coproduction of 1975.