Dear England
Tom Elliman at The Hippodrome
Whether or not you follow England home and away, or are only a fair-weather fan, Dear England, James Graham’s latest award-winning play will be sure to hit the back of the net.
The production begins with England’s rebuild following the shocking (and yet still so painful) defeat to Iceland in Euro 2016. An ill-fated appointment of Sam Allardyce’s managerial skills ends (perhaps fortunately) prematurely, so Gareth Southgate (David Sturzaker) is called upon. The Under-21s manager who steps into the ‘impossible job’ – England Men’s Manager.
Thus follows the highs and lows of Southgate’s 8-year tenure of our country’s most poisoned chalice. He wants a root and stem rebuild of not just England’s tactics on the pitch, but more importantly, the psychology, culture and mentality off it. To help Southgate achieve his radical new management style is psychologist and culture expert Pippa Grange (Samantha Womack). She encourages Gareth to help his players (and himself) tap into their mental health and relationship with playing for the national side to help fortify themselves for the mental side of the tournaments to come.
The first half of Dear England builds joyfully towards the penalty shoot-out win against Colombia in the 2018 World Cup, whilst after half time it deals with more difficult episodes for the England team, and the pressures that comes with wearing the Three Lions on your shirt. .
The cast ably support Sturzaker’s pensive, heartfelt and caring Southgate. There are too many to mention individually, but particular mentions go to Harry Kane (Oscar Gough – stage debut) and Raheem Sterling (Ashley Gyam) for particularly capturing the mannerisms very well. The stage stalwarts Ian Kirkby and Ian Bartholomew, ably provide a variety of roles and cracking impressions.
The script, though dealing with difficult themes such as personal and national identity, racism and heartbreak also delivers plenty of laughs to keep the pace up. The cast clearly have fun with the script as they lean into not just parodies of footballers new and old, but political figures of the last decade as well.
Whilst the staging was minimal, it was sleek and effective which meant there was little downtime between scenes. As a result, Dear England remains pacy whilst not feeling frantic – despite a run-time of approximately 2hrs 30 minutes, you feel you are moving at the right pace. The production team also use lighting and sound to intertwine classic clips of heartbreak and joy over the last 60 years of English football into the performance which really helped build the connection between the audience and the ‘players’. Choreography is also extremely polished – you feel you are in the stadium watching the games in some moments, which, considering there isn’t a ball actually kicked in the whole production shows just how absorbing the choreography is.
A theme I felt Dear England communicated brilliantly was the sense of connection and enjoyment Southgate helped build between the fanbase and the players again. Despite hearing an impressed Thomas Tuchel list all of the records set by Southgate’s reign, he still came under fire repeatedly for not being ‘good enough’ to manage England. After so many years of disconnect and misery under Southgate’s predecessors, Dear England gives us a timely reminder of Southgate’s transformational impact, which will perhaps be his legacy.
There are some references in the play that may be lost on audience members if they are not a football fan, but even if you are not an ardent follower of the Three Lions, you can’t help but get swept away on the emotions played out on the stage. Those emotions are an intoxicating mix of elation, disappointment, and increasingly thanks to Southgate, hope.
Dear England deserves its countless five-star reviews, for what has been the most enjoyable experience I have had at the theatre for many years.
It runs from the 10th March – 14th March at the Hippodrome Theatre. Tickets here.
*****