James Graham’s acclaimed play travels from the National Theatre to the heart of the West End in a limited running production starring Joseph Fiennes. Guillermo Nazara shares his views on the show, to let us know if this goal-scoring piece will make you get a kick out of it.
Sometimes we need to win to take into account all that we’ve lost along the way. We’ve been raised to believe that competitiveness is the key to life’s success. No matter what we do, we need to be the best. Effort and learning doesn’t count as much as getting recognition, and that becomes all we care about – pleasing ourselves (and above all, trying to please others) with through the superficial joy of materialistic achievement. All along forgetting that, many times, the real triumph can come from failure.
The subject of emotional intelligence has returned to the stage – but surprisingly enough, not through a conference on mindfulness. The Prince Edward Theatre hosts the West End transfer of Dear England, a National Theatre production framing with the trials and tribulations of the country’s football team as they prep their way up to the world cup. Written by James Graham, the play explores, with sufficient depth, the themes and values that are usually associated with sport: camaraderie, relisience and a sense of community – all of them unavoidably linked to also destructive rivalry, a need for overachievement, and the toxicity stemming from its commercialisation.
Starring Joseph Fiennes as real-life coach Gareth Southgate, the piece is a tale of personal endeavour and self-discovery, through an introspective realization of what’s truly important where aiming for a goal (no pun intended). Both insightful and entertaining, the script manages to entice and relate to the viewer regardless of its background (take a proud football hater’s word), presenting us with enough substance and intelligence to create a narrative anyone can see themselves reflected on. We’ve all been on that quest for perfection, only to find out sooner or later that that was precisely our biggest defect.
Directed by Rupert Goold, the montage features clever, smooth blocking mixed up with extremely theatrical visuals – all of them noticeably enhanced by Es Devlin’s eye-catching sets, as well as Ash J Woodward’s cinematically enveloping and highly transporting video design. Relying, too, on rather pictorial choreographies by Hannes Langolf and Ellen Kane, the show’s only flaw comes from its slightly slowed down pacing – as some of the scenes need some minor editing to allow its rhythm to fully flow.
As for the cast, the whole company thrives in unison through their incredibly driven renditions, along with the electrifying rapport emanating all throughout the performance. Nonetheless, there’s some additional gleam oozing from some of them, the first worthy mention coming from Will Close in the part of Harry Kane – endowing his character with charm and huge comedic timing while preventing him from turning into a caricature. On the other hand, Lloyd Hutchison makes a more than memorable appearance in his multi-role depiction of Sam Allardyce, Fabio Campello, Panama Manager and Physio Phil, stealing the spotlight from whoever stands beside him thanks to his infectious stamina. Yet, the highest praise undoubtedly goes to Joseph Fiennes, for his incredibly natural portrayal of a somehow eccentric role, which he achieves to interpret with utter perfection by giving it essence, approachability and, ultimately, soul.
A story of personal evolvement and cultural honour, Dear England gets the ball rolling in the West End through a bit of an unusual topic in the theatre (The Beautiful Game doesn’t come), while bringing up (and out) the topics that make of a play the experience any viewer wants and should go through. Thorough, slightly cunning and compellingly moving, there’s enough elements in both its writing and delivery to make of it worthy of the podium. Forget the score on the board, it’s fairly obvious which one is the winning team.
All pictures credit to Marc Brenner.