Review: DEAR ENGLAND, Prince Edward Theatre

Photo credit: Marc Brenner

There isn’t much to be proud of about England right now, and with a government actively pushing division, our country continues to split into increasingly threatening tribes. As Steven Graham’s fictional Southgate (embodied perfectly by Joseph Fiennes) proposes at the top of Act 2: “There is a problem with England”. Yet, here is a play seeking to explore every aspect of what it means to be English through the lens of our national football team, more specifically their current manager Gareth Southgate, who quite literally helped change the game for The Lions and help explore how one man was able to start bringing a country back together again through sport.

Dear England picks up just as Southgate arrives on the scene and follows his time with the team right up until their loss to France in the 2022 Qatar World Cup. While this may seem like a long stretch of losses that we, as an audience, are already all too familiar with, Steven Graham’s writing remains fresh, providing insight into the inner workings of the team and more specifically, their mental states at various stages of training. The play manages to give just the right amount of airtime to many issues faced by the players; the weight of the pressure of representing the “England” mantle in international tournaments, what it means to wear the shirt when some fans can’t acknowledge their existence as equal, and more holistically, how any of us are able to face our demons without ever feeling as if the text is wearing itself thin. Southgate’s own emotional journey is wonderfully interwoven into the play too, with the very opening scene being him observing his own missed penalty on home turf in 1996 and the ending being a touching reminder of how this has driven his every decision.

It is this exploration into mental health that gives this play its emotional heart. As Graham explores the real-life first England Men’s team psychologist Pippa Grange (played here for the first time by Dervla Kirwan), and her input into the new training regime, allowing the players to feel more connected to one another and to cope with what is expected of them. It becomes clear that Southgate’s ultimate priority isn’t winning at first but is the wellbeing of the players, to ensure that they don’t have to experience the crushing weight of what he went through previously. Kirwan is a relaxing and soothing presence on stage and, as Pippa, is able to hold her own as the only female on this incredibly masculine stage with a reassured and nuanced performance.

Coming in at two hours and fifty minutes, it is Rupert Goold’s direction that maintains the play’s momentum. There is never a dull moment here as we move through scenes with the finely tuned detail of a football player dribbling across the pitch, darting this way and that but always with one goal in mind. Goold is able to move from moments of earnest heartbreak, such as Southgate sharing his feelings on his missed penalty in the locker room, to moments of comedy without the show ever feeling rushed, each moment has its time and has been carefully considered. Scenes sweep across Es Devlin’s triple revolve with a cinematic quality that keeps audiences engaged throughout the entire play. There are also collages here, of England as a whole, that offer insight into the general public’s attitude that are brilliantly staged in the space truly becoming a reflection of our modern England.

Joseph Fiennes has truly hit the back of the net with his transformative portrayal of England manager Southgate; so much so, you’d forgive audience members in the grand circle for thinking it actually is him on stage. His mannerisms, from his voice to the way he holds himself in observation, are picture perfect. Southgate may not be an obvious choice for the subject of a play, yet Fiennes allows for his presence to be totally natural on the West End stage. His ability to portray someone so passionate about what they do and why they do it is phenomenal, and allows for the full range of Southgate’s journey to be played out. As the England players take their penalty shots one by one, we are able to see this process through Gareth’s eyes, haunted by the miss in 1996. A definite nomination here for Best Actor if we do say so ourselves.

Fiennes is surrounded by a fantastic ensemble of… well… team players! In both senses of the phrase. Actors who make up the England team take on their roles with just as much care and attention paid to the accuracy of their performance, with a stand out mention going to Will Close as Captain Harry Kane who is able to bring not only an incredible comic awareness to the stage, but in Act Two as he fights to wear the One Love Rainbow armband, and asks Southgate why he was chosen as Captain, depth that may not have been previously considered by the audience.

Another thing we truly love about this play is that it is doing something that few shows have managed to do before and reach a whole new audience. Not only is this a play put together for lovers of theatre, but also lovers of the ‘beautiful game’. On a non-press-night evening, you may look over the crowd and see fathers and sons wearing their football kits; people who would never normally attend a play, enjoying a night at the theatre based on a subject they adore. This is mirrored in the play’s accessibility to those who may know nothing about theatre too; all is explained in the context of the text without ever feeling like a lecture or history lesson. This performance is truly universal and speaks to something greater than the sum of its parts.

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Callum Wallace

Dear England plays at London’s Prince Edward Theatre until 13 January 2024, with tickets available here.