In a post-industrial East Midlands town where the largest employer was once the coal mines but is now a warehouse, three sisters prepare for the wedding of one of their number to a Polish immigrant. The scene is primed to unveil a gamut of familiar tropes — class disenchantment, resentment of immigrants, decades-old family feuds and of course the appalling spectacle of drunken wedding dancing en masse. But Beth Steel's caustic family drama also has some unexpected skeletons in its closet, and the excellent cast seem hell-bent on freeing them.
Sinéad Matthews (Sylvia), Lisa McGrillis (Maggie), Philip Whitchurch (Uncle Pete), Lorraine Ashbourne (Aunty Carol) and Lucy Black (Hazel) in Till the Stars Come Down at the National Theatre. Photo (c) Manuel Harlan
