Camden New Journal - Theatre: In Celebration

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The Review - THEATRE by ILLTYD HARRINGTON
Published: 26 July 2007

Storey, in full Bloom

IN CELEBRATION
Duke Of York

IT is a matter of enormous pleasure to see this 1969 play of Kentish Town playwright David Storey back on the West End stage.
Mr Shaw (Tim Healy) and Mrs Shaw (Tearbla Malloy) are about to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary and his 50 years as a miner. A little working-class celebration is in order.
His sons are the beneficiaries of the 1944 Education Act, which opened many university doors to working-class children.
While Shaw is a working-class workhorse with an uncomplicated view of the world, his sons belong to a class where certainties are melting away.
Their celebratory night out looks like ending in a predictable way: a good drink before bed. But the passion and the pain rise quickly to the surface as Mr Shaw’s sons’ bitterness and cynicism shatter the comfortable illusion of his “right good night out”.
The strength of In Celebration lies in the barefaced working-class standards facing up to unchartered territory. The joyful gathering fades into fear and desperation.
Orlando Bloom manages to project his resignation while Paul Hilton’s taunts and stings wreck the parental front.
It is as well to remember that in 1961, two-thirds of employed people were manual workers who believed in the existence of a class struggle.
The Shaw family was an honest picture of so many others, where not many plants bloomed.
Anna Mackmin’s strong, accurate direction gives cause for a celebration of its own and the case for seeing more of Storey’s work, which has more substance than shadow.
Until September 15

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