Three Lancashire Plays: The Game; The Northerners; Zack

"Three Lancashire Plays: The Game; The Northerners; Zack" by Harold Brighouse is a set of plays that examines the shifting relationships between family members, communities, and individual desires in Lancashire during the early 1900s. Through the story "The Game," readers meet characters dealing with questions of who they are, where their loyalties lie, and how they can achieve their artistic goals amidst a sports-loving society. In the first moments of "The Game," we find ourselves in a Lancashire home where Austin Whitworth’s family excitedly awaits a football match crucial for their team, the Blackton Rovers; the interactions between Austin, his brother Edmund, and his kids – Leo, Florence, and Elsie – build a setting loaded with light-hearted jokes and subtle stress concerning the recent transfer of star player Jack Metherell. As the story develops, the family’s differing levels of interest in football, plus issues of loyalty, ambition, and societal norms become clear, revealing contrasting views between generations and hinting at deeper feelings related to love and bonds within the family.