York Theatre Royal – 12 to 15 October 2016. Reviewed By Marcus Richardson
When Football meets Theatre, it can be an amazing success like Bend it Like Beckham: the Musical; this show however neither wowed me or made me hate it.
The play set in Gateshead follows two young lads, who have a passion for football and will do anything to get season tickets to see Newcastle United. The play shows a working class family who are in protective care from an abusive father and husband.
For me the most impressive this was the set, it was amazing how it showed the steel city vibe, the the use of girders and estate like flats, just blew me away when I walked into the theatre, the certain walls would ride up and review a house, this gave a great sense of setting without having to change the whole entire set itself, the football commentator that was done over the speakers made for great use of the passage of time and also kept the audience of the struggle of the two lads.
The acting was pretty good on most part, the only thing that let it down for me is that Gerry (Niek Vergsteeg) the main character was hard to understand as he was doing a geordie accent that was hard to hear and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what he was saying, that said his physicality was amazing and I couldn’t falter.
The actor who stood out for me was Victoria Elliot who played the mother Dee she was equally funny and serious, she had so much stage presence and made for some scenes to be very impacting and other very funny with her pineapple jokes. I also loved Will Graham who played the best friend Sewell, and Kevin Wathen who played Dan, Dees new partner. Some of the multi role was hard to understand as two of the character were very similar and I had trouble telling the two apart.
It seemed very strange to have such a football heavy and urban place in a city like York and it seems that it would be suit to other cities like Manchester and Sheffield which have a football history and following. The themes of the play didn’t appeal to me because I’m not too fond of football and it didn’t draw my interests in.
The play premiered in Newcastle with the Northern Stage group, it will also be at York Theatre Royal until the 15th October and it will go to Winchester from the 20th to the 22 of October and make its last stop at Dundee where it will open 25th and close 27th October.