Newcastle fixture for footy drama Dear England
Play about Gareth Southgate’s England bound for the Theatre Royal
They’re often compared, theatre and football, words and phrases borrowed from one to describe the other, but they’ll come together in the autumn when there’s a Dear England fixture at the Theatre Royal.
Actually several fixtures because James Graham’s hit play will spend a week at the venue, from November 11 to 15, on a tour which kicks off in Plymouth on September 15.
The play, directed by Rupert Goold, looks at Gareth Southgate’s time as manager of the England men’s football team.
Or, as the theatre people put it, “the uplifting, at times heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring story of Gareth Southgate’s revolutionary tenure as England manager” in a “gripping examination of nation and game”.
It sounds unlikely. Football, though packed with drama, doesn’t always work on stage and Southgate… well, he’s no Brian Clough.
This, though, has been a big success, the result never in doubt - applause and that footballing impossibility, everyone a winner.
Dear England opened at the National Theatre in June 2023 and transferred to the West End. Last year it won the Olivier Award for best new play and there was also one for Will Close for playing Harry Kane.
James Graham’s a clever chap, adept at making drama out of real life events and with many successes to his name – including, on TV, Quiz, Sherwood and Brexit: The Uncivil War.
The spark for this was Gareth Southgate’s open letter to “Dear England fans” in 2020 when he addressed the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic and extended sympathy to the bereaved.
The play, in an updated version, is returning to the National Theatre from March 10 to May 24 and then has a run at The Lowry in Salford (May 29 to June 29) before the autumn tour gets underway in a co-production with JAS Theatricals.
The tour cast is yet to be announced so the photos you see here are of previous manifestations of the show.
James Graham, appointed OBE in 2020 for services to drama and young people in theatre, declared himself “beyond delighted and grateful” that a tour is taking place.
“To put the national game on the stage of the National Theatre and then in the West End back in 2023 was an utter dream,” he said.
“Now, to head out on a nationwide tour feels like winning the treble.
“As someone from a community that had limited access to culture growing up (in a Nottinghamshire market town), I’m especially aware of how vital it is to share work of such a scale beyond the capital.
“And as a lifelong theatre and England fan, the chance to tell a story about the beautiful game and through the prism of Gareth Southgate’s transformative term has been a privilege.”
Kate Varah, executive director and co-chief executive of the National Theatre, said the play “takes the much-loved topic of football and opens up a lens on so much more: English identity, masculinity and what it means to be a leader”.
And she concludes: “Whether you are a football fan or not, Dear England will bring you joy and hope for all we can achieve in this country.”
For all his achievements, Gareth Southgate’s career will also be remembered for his near misses as England manager (beaten semi-finalists at the 2018 World Cup, beaten finalists at Euro 2020).
And who could forget the poor chap’s saved penalty in the semi-final at Euro 96 which saw England, on home soil, get knocked out by Germany?
On a personal note, I was at the Theatre Royal that night, doing my job as a reviewer (the memory plays tricks but I think it was a production of The Wind in the Willows).
As the audience filed out, and I was among the first, Theatre Royal front-of-house staff were clustered round a radio perched on a bar stool. I was just in time to hear Gareth take his penalty, the hush and then the groans.
There was, I dare say, as much drama in that moment as in what had preceded it on stage.
And what of England now? In the week that Dear England is in Newcastle, the national team will be hosting Serbia (November 13) in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, to be followed by an away fixture against Albania on the 16th.
Can England’s new German manager, Thomas Tuchel, build on Southgate’s work and land a trophy? We’ll see.
One final observation on the soon-to-open second run of Dear England at the National Theatre, which has been cast even if the tour hasn’t.
Josh Barrow, born in Newcastle in that fateful year of 1996, has landed the role of playing England, Everton and one-time Sunderland goalie Jordan Pickford. Good luck, son!
Tickets for Dear England will be on sale at the Theatre Royal box office soon (to Friends Plus on March 24, to Friends on March 28, to Flexi Priority Pass holders, groups and schools on April 1 and to the general public on April 4 – all at 10am).