*****

A fan once said to legendary Liverpool football manager Bill Shankly:

‘To you football is a matter of life or death!’ , he replied:  ‘Listen, it’s more important than that’.

The two great loves of my life are football and theatre. I approached this production with trepidation.  Could it do justice to either? Football plays are thin on the ground. Peter Terson’s 1967, “Zigger Zagger”, and that is about it. There is a reason for this, it is a very difficult subject to realise convincingly on stage. That difficulty is compounded currently by the wave of nationalist political sentiment popularly expressed by England flag displays swathed in a myriad definitions of what England is  about. The moment is both auspicious and dangerous. This production is  rewritten from the 2023 original to incorporate subsequent events. This review offers no narrative as there are a number of surprise delights. Rupert Goold directs with vim and vigour, bringing playwright James Howard’s script alive, a local Nottingham boy made good.

Centre stage  is David Sturzaker as Gareth. He is magnificent, from my front row seat every trademark eyelash flutter and facial nuance was apparent as he journeys from failed penalty taker to the most successful England Manager since Sir Alf Ramsey.

At his side is sports psychologist Pippa Grange ( Samantha Womack). Womack is a revelation on stage freed from the constraints of her television roles- most notably with East Enders.

The cast of twenty three is massive, how the production can make money is beyond me. The story of the cultural and psychological development of Southgate  is interspersed by numerous hilarious  comic character cameos ( Allardyce/ Taylor/ Capello/ Boris Johnson/ Theresa May)  and a script with laugh out loud comedy.

Yet Howards’ script  gently, and powerfully touches on racism, masculinity and national identity in a way which illuminates rather than shouts, and, unlike the England team itself,  is consistently, entertaining. Multi- layered, it explores the national team, Southgate himself , our own collective sense of national identity , and how we deal with the past, and trauma, “Dear England is , in the theatrical sense, not the political sense, a populist play. with the audience encouraged to join with the songs “Sweet Caroline ” , “World in Motion ” and “Three Lions” . The terraces meet the stalls.

Director Rupert Goold, choreographer Ellen Kane, and designer Es Devlin combine to create a confident, bombastic feel to the production. A circular floor and ceiling lit circular surround put its characters literally in the spotlight.

If you love theatre, but hate football – or vice versa – I would heartily recommend you watch Dear England, which runs until Saturday, September 27 and continues on National tour

“I always think: ‘What if this is the first play someone ever sees?’ That’s always in my head, whatever the subject matter,” he comments that he didn’t grow up with the theatre, and saw his first play in London in his 20s: “I don’t have an arty family.”

Therefore, he was very aware that it was the football story that attracted thousands of people to see a straight play for the first time in the West End.

This made the opportunity to give the play a regional premiere and a tour even more vital: “I advocated very strongly for it… It’s the national game and it’s the National Theatre. It should go around the nation.”