The March on Russia

It is the 60th wedding anniversary of Tommy Pasmore and his wife. Their three children, Colin, the friendless academic who has bought the house in which his parents now live, childless Wendy, forsaking marriage for politics, and pragmatic Eileen, have returned home to celebrate, if that is the right expression. The senior Pasmores live together despite each other and as the layers of formal affection and bickering banter are peeled back we discover deep wells of disappointment and despair, not only for themselves but also for a society that appears to have exchanged one kind of poverty for another. But only by incanting memories can the elderly couple come to terms with their barren present and terrifying future. Seen in the Lyttelton auditorium at the National Theatre in 1989 this play is a worthy successor to the author's earlier In Celebration.