Review: The Game****

At York Theatre Royal

How strange this play by Harold Brighouse is almost a century old. When I saw Deborah McAndrew's name in the programme, I assumed she had provided yet another excellent script based on an old play. I turns out that Brighouse was just this brilliant and McAndrew was providing an introduction.

A footballer being bribed. A WAG. A club chairman squirming over money troubles. This production might look vintage Northern Broadsides, but the script reads like it's just dropped off the printing press.

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The Game pre-dated Brighouse's Hobson's Choice by two years, but it shows the playwright already had a great grip on social drama played out in the crucible of family life. Austin Whitworth is the owner of Blackton Rovers, a Northern football club (judging by the accents, on the other side of the Pennines) and he has sold the star player Jack Metherell to a rival club on the day the two teams meet. Add to the mix a love affair between Metherell and one of Whitworth's wayward daughters and it's all great family drama.

While the script sizzles, the production chugs along efficiently rather than dazzlingly – until the second act when Coronation Street's Wendi Peters takes to the stage. She may need to be careful not to get arrested, for she very nearly steals the whole show – although Phil Rowson as the monosyllabic footballer with pretentsions has a good go too. With those two brilliant performances, the script and the solid directing and production, this is another success for Broadsides.

To Nov 27.