Trafalgar Studios – until 2 December. Reviewed by Claire Roderick
5*****
The Red Lion is one of those plays that makes you want to book another ticket as you’re walking out of the theatre. Yes, it’s about football, and the F-word usually sends me to sleep, but football fans and footballphobes will be swept away by the passion of these characters.
Patrick Marber draws on his own experiences in semi-professional football to create a script sharp enough to slice the halftime oranges. Manager Kidd (Stephen Tomkinson) is willing to use any means necessary to further the club’s, and his own, interests. Shady deals and bungs off the pitch and dodgy tactics on the pitch are all justifiable as long as he gets what he wants. Football is a business. Kit man Yates (John Bowler) is a club legend whose actions are driven by club loyalty and a sense of history and community. When a promising new player Jordan (Dean Bone) arrives, the two men begin a tug-of-war to control the youngster’s future.
Just like football, Marber’s script veers between poetic beauty and short, sharp brutality, peppered with salty language and lots of laughs. The laughs dwindle in the devastating final scene as the characters’ actions catch up with them and their careers are threatened. These men were all drawn to football because of their parents, and they all have nothing but football to bring meaning to their lives.
John Bowler brings a lyrical melancholy to Yates, from the moment the doors open as he irons the team jerseys, kissing the club badge on each one. His finely nuanced performance reveals the pain and neediness of this broken man brilliantly. Dean Bone is totally believable as the naïve Jordan. He also excels in showing the many facets of this conflicted young man – innocent but shifty, sweet but brimming with anger. Stephen Tomkinson gives the performance of a lifetime as Kidd – full of fury and arrogance berating refs and grounds staff one minute, then pleading with Yates for approval like a lost little boy the next.
A dream cast at the top of their game, alongside Max Roberts’ skilful direction and the wonderfully authentic set design by Patrick Connellan (the smell of Deep Heat as you enter will clear up any winter sniffles) make this production something very special indeed.