[star rating=”2″] DEAR ENGLAND. Filmed live on stage at the National Theatre. Writer: James Graham. Directors: Rupert Goold and Christine Lalla. Starring Joseph Fiennes. Ster-Kinekor cinemas.
MEGAN CHORITZ reviews
For those who know me, you know I live for the NT Live screenings. I try and see every single one, sometimes more than once. When Dear England came up, I did pause; a play about soccer, and a biographical one at that, really isn’t up my alley. But theatre is. And so, I approached the screening with curiosity (and zero research, which was probably a bit of a mistake).
As always, when the lights go down on stage, even when it is on the screen, I shiver with anticipation, and the opening sequence of the play, a soccer player taking a penalty kick, and missing, is very dramatic. Especially since the stage is a massive circle, with moving screens and a digital ticker tape/scoreboard. Joseph Fiennes as Gareth Southgate looks on. And we soon find out that this missed penalty was his. The rest of the play (the long, long play) is the true story of Gareth Southgate’s tenure as manager of the England team, and their journey through various world cups (and other competitions), where they still could not ‘bring it home’ as winners.
All a bit much
Joseph Fiennes goes to lengths to look like Southgate. He has big teeth, and quirky physical ticks, and it’s all quite impressive, but the play itself, and the many, many, many sequences, and games, and pep talks, and slow-motion action, and the rest of the coaching and management team, and reporters, and Theresa May, and missed penalties, are all a bit much. Added to that is the semi-documentary style execution, the reportage, the many bit players, a touch of racism, class issues, sexism, and the endless almostness of it all.
Sport is not a great subject matter for a play. It’s kinda the opposite of theatre. Sport is unpredictable and cruel and competitive. That is what it is. To try and see the ‘humanity’ in it seems a bit futile, and as a theatrical endeavour it doesn’t work. The cast of young football players do their best, but often it felt like a school’s workshopped production, with the cast running on and off with chairs, doing bad slow-motion, and the awkward appearance of some terrible, hideous skullcaps.
Maybe for soccer loving fans …
At one point one of the characters says, “Caring about people in sport? Isn’t that radical?” and I thought, sums it up really. The two things have very little to do with each other. I’ve always felt that sport was horrible, and theatre was amazing, and this play, too tied into the actual history to be able to make a proper message of it, doesn’t.
There is a great performance by a young actor, Will Close, who skilfully tightropes between great comedy and pathos in his portrayal of the captain Harry Kane, but mostly the characters are caricatures, and I was irritated that it went on for so long without any proper resolution.
It’s not the one for me. I like my theatre theatrical. But maybe a new theatre audience of soccer loving fans will adore it.
What: Dear England
Where and when: Select Ster-Kinekor cinemas on 24, 25, 28 and 29 August 2024
Tickets: Ster-Kinekor
WS
