What’s it all about?
The Red Lion, the latest play from Dealer’s Choice and Closer playwright Patrick Marber, is a battle for the soul of football; jumpers for goalposts against pocket-lining money men. It’s an exploration of male ambition, loss, competition, fear of emotion and the need to belong, following the trials and tribulations at a non-league football club as an on-the-take manager and washed up nostalgic kit man fight over the future of a wunderkind with a secret.
Who’s in it?
Daniel Mays reunites with director Ian Rickson to play manager Kidd, a man with more footballing bluster than a windy day at Wembley. With an ego to serve and a classic hardened winner’s exterior, he’s as shifty as a weasel in a bandit mask.
Peter Wight returns to the NT stage as mild mannered, slow to anger, past-dwelling kit man Yates, who Wight and his doleful eyes imbues with lashings of avuncular care and an unspoken sad desperation.
Completing the three-hander’s cast, Calvin Demba is a surprisingly likeable young footballer, genuinely interested in playing rather than collecting enough bling to be seen from space.
What should I watch out for?
Don’t watch, sniff. It may have been my imagination, the sporting aroma of the audience around me or the sheer convincing nature of Anthony Ward’s set, but I swear I could smell Deep Heat wafting from the perfectly tatty on-stage changing room.
In a nutshell?
Shots are taken, own goals are scored and the beautiful game gets uglier and uglier in Patrick Marber’s non-league battle for the soul of soccer.
What’s being said on Twitter?
Astoundingly good actors @DanielMays9 #peterwight & @CalvinCookie in @Pmarber‘s superbly written & very timely #TheRedLion @NationalTheatre
— Sue Odell (@scorpioredhair) June 9, 2015
#TheRedLion @NationalTheatre Daniel Mays and Peter Wight are passionate; pained; desperate & tragic. Totally absorbing #ElectricTheatre
— Deven Modha (@DevenModhaUK) June 11, 2015
Will I like it?
A trio of Premier League performances illuminating a script that often displays the flourishes of a Champions League winger, though on occasion drifts towards the predictability of a League One journeyman midfielder, this is definitely one for football purists. But it’s also for anyone fancying a glimpse into the oft masculine / sporting realms of winning at all costs, locker room power plays and the desperation to hang onto glory.
The Red Lion is playing at the National Theatre, Dorfman until 30 September. You can book tickets through the theatre’s website.