About the Play:

HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited number of copies are still available.

In Celebration is a full-length drama by David Storey. Three brothers – Andrew, Colin and Steven – return home to the northern roots of their childhood for a family reunion. Although they have returned to celebrate, the explosive complexities of family life and long-held grievances are unlikely to improve the chances of a decent party.

In Celebration recounts a 24- hour reunion that occurs when three sons return to their Yorkshire row house to celebrate their parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Three utterly different sons have come to help their old-fashioned parents celebrate an anniversary of the marriage that produced them. The oldest, Andrew, has just thrown up his job as a lawyer to become a bad painter. The middle son, Colin, is a success. The youngest, Steven, is a teacher who has recently given up on the writing of his all-important novel. Although they have returned to celebrate, the explosive complexities of family life and long-held grievances are unlikely to improve the chances of a decent party. Compelling and emotionally thrilling, In Celebration is an exploration of family love and of how the consequences of best intentions can threaten to destroy treasured hopes and dreams.

In Celebration premiered in 1969 at the Royal Court Theatre in London, took audiences by storm, and established David Storey as one of Britain's most powerful playwrights. This modern classic has been performed in regional repertory, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 female, 5 male

What people say:

"Classically laid out as if to Aristotle's rules and simmering with Freudian implications, In Celebration at the Royal Court does honour to that theatre's proud tradition of social realism."

"Concerned with something more than the mere confines of its situation, the great themes of guilt and atonement are handled in this play with skill, insight and weight not often displayed on the English stage."

About the Playwright:

David Malcolm Storey (1933-2017) was a well-known English playwright, screenwriter, and poet as well as an award-winning novelist and a former professional rugby league player. The son of a coal miner, he was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England and earned a diploma from the Slade School of Art in London. His early life as a professional rugby player and an art student influenced his works. He documented much of this in his seventh novel Saville, which won the Man Booker Prize for fiction in 1976.