James Graham’s epic play Dear England opened on the Olivier stage at London’s National Theatre in 2023 to critical acclaim, swiftly transferring to the West End and garnering the Olivier Award for best new play the following year. Such was its popularity that it was revived at the National last spring, before transferring to the Lowry in Salford and embarking on a 16 venue tour which is nearing its end as it plays its penultimate week here at Liverpool Empire.
Named in reference to an open letter to the nation penned by Gareth Southgate in 2020 ahead of the delayed UEFA Euro Championship, the play charts the turbulent but inspiring story of his tenure as England men’s team manager. The narrative is a fictionalised account based around meticulous research, and with careful attention to the key historical details.
Very much like the team itself, the play has evolved through changes in personnel in many roles and has had its ending re-written, the latter move being to update the story to include Southgate’s ultimate departure as manager.
Perhaps the most important initial observation to make about Dear England is that it is a play that is as much about people as it is about football. It is very much set in a footballing world and the passion of it will naturally be more keenly felt by football fans, but it is a piece of work that will not fail to engage those who don’t follow the game. There is plenty of psychological drama written for the stage, but here is a drama of psychology, which examines the minds of the manager, the players, the backroom personnel and the nation as a whole.
The stage is dominated by Es Devlin’s monolithic set, which feels almost as though the Olivier’s circular amphitheatre has been transplanted into the Empire. The design makes sweeping and dramatic use of video projection by Ash J Woodward which transforms the space in cinematic style, giving us a sense of being transported into the various arenas of play, as well as the training grounds, changing rooms and boardrooms in which the drama unfolds.
The embryo from which the entire story seems to grow is Gareth Southgate’s own missed semi-final penalty which lost England a place in the 1996 Euros final. This moment is re-lived in a brief prologue, before we lurch forward to 2016, to see him bumped into his interim role as England manager.
The ink on his signature is not even dry before Southgate begins to make waves, leading to much head scratching among players, coaches and board members. He enlists the help of psychologist Pippa Grange with whom he sets about galvanising the team from a group of talented individuals with all their own personal goals into a cohesive unit. Together they examine the peculiar relationship that the English people have with their national team. Why do we have such high expectations despite decades of defeat, and why are we so quick to forget the successes and focus on the negativity? This is where we see the heart of Graham’s writing, in which he tries to get his team to confront their mental demons – something eventually extended when he makes his heartfelt appeal to the nation who look to the team to give them a positive story as they emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Throughout successive training sessions and tournaments, we see the team deal with the weight of responsibility, the burden of past failures, and the rise in vitriolic and frequently racist abuse from the people who are supposed to be their supporters.
With such a large and immensely talented cast it is impossible to single out every performance, but particular plaudits must go to David Sturzaker and Samantha Womack, as Southgate and Grange. Surrounding them mention must also be made of Oscar Gough as Harry Kane, Jake Ashton-Nelson as Jordan Henderson and, getting a particularly enthusiastic reception from this audience, Jack Maddison as Jordan Pickford. Ian Kirkby also makes a big impact as commentator Gary Linaker and Ian Bartholemew as assistant manager Steve Holland (both of whom multi-task in various other parts).
Rupert Goold’s direction (revived for the tour by Connie Treves) keeps the pace moving with very few lapses throughout the almost 3 hour run time, and the energy is ramped up by a pulsing soundtrack from Dan Balfour and Tom Gibbons, interspersed with music ranging from The Verve to Edward Elgar and Fat Les.
This is powerful and stirring stuff, and whilst being a tremendously entertaining piece of storytelling it also invites us to examine our own psyche as individuals and as a nation, and to question why we focus so much on what divides us rather than what binds us together.
Dear England is at Liverpool Empire until 7th March with tickets available here, and it then concludes its tour with a further week at Birmingham Hippodrome.
Star rating: 4 stars
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| Members of the cast of Dear England - Picture by Marc Brenner |
This review was originally written for publication by Good News Liverpool
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