The Game (play)

The Game is a play by Harold Brighouse, first published in 1920 as one of Three Lancashire Plays, the other two plays being The Northerners and Zack.

The play is centred on a fictional football team, Blackton Rovers, their star player Jack Metherell and the family of club owner Austin Whitworth.^[1][2] Themes include: class divisions, the immoral effects of rich idleness, the moral value of having to work and social trends in the society of that day.

In 1920 the play was adapted into a film The Winning Goal directed by G.B. Samuelson. Professional footballer Jack Cock appeared as himself in the film.

It was revived by Northern Broadsides in 2010 after a period of near oblivion. Barrie Rutter, the company's artistic director, failed to find a copy of the script in Britain. He finally found one in a Canadian university library. It is now available from Samuel French Ltd..^[3]

References