A play about football and politics opened on the Grand Theatre’s stage last night – and the audience joined in on the action.
As a football fan who studied politics in the 1990s, in which this play was set, I was intrigued by this Emmerson & Ward Production at the Grand Theatre, which promised to weave the politics of the post-industrial North East and Newcastle’s heroic failure in the 1995/96 Premier League season. If anything the experience was better than I could have hoped for.
At some point the decision was made for the audience to be seated on the stage. Like front row seats in a football stadium this gave a completely different perspective. At times the performers were stood a couple of feet away, I think this probably makes it harder to deliver performances but you wouldn’t have known it.
During the day I saw a social media post describing a ‘particularly English’ incident where the deceased person’s choice of football team was booed in a funeral service. I mention this because at one point in the performance Manchester United beating the supposed good guys in this story was cheered by the people behind me who clearly followed the Reds.
During the interval people were checking and sharing scores from the night’s European football games, in a relatively informal staging this further blurred the lines between performance and reality.
The football was primarily a backdrop for a parable about the relationship between politics and principles. David Nellist plays Len, a died in the wool hard left local activist, whose desire to become the constituency MP is challenged by returning home New Left Victoria, played by Eve Tucker. The cast is completed by Jessica Johnson as Len’s long suffering wife and Daniel Watson as his initially naïve friend and work and union colleague. Johnson’s performance including the impact of stillbirth was in my view the most powerful, but everybody was convincing.
The show starts with a game of pool. I was impressed by the way that Nellist and Watson casually worked in comments about fluke shots that were actually happening live without batting an eyelid. Darts purists may be less impressed as some of the arrows being thrown were landing in the scenery rather than the dartboard, though I guess that happens in most pubs too when a couple of jars have been had.
If you would like to experience up close an intimate and engaging performance Love It If We Beat Them is also being staged tonight (Wednesday) only at 7.30pm. Book here.
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