First of all, let me say that Joseph Fiennes is absolutely brilliant as Gareth Southgate in James Graham’s Dear England. To be honest, he gave a better performance than Southgate often puts in, writes Michael Holland.
I had come with high expectations of this new play about Southgate’s tenure in the England manager role. Would it be a bore-draw or will the team smash it out of the stadium? Would it go to a penalty shootout that left me either high or crying?
Es Devlin’s stage was a giant circle with a flip-top lid which opened to reveal a young Southgate missing the crucial penalty against Germany that put us out of the ’96 Euros. Looking on was the Gareth Southgate of today. It is the penalty spot that the play is centred upon.
The set-up to the story begins with video projections of past players and managers before Big Sam Allardyce is sacked for skulduggery and Gareth Southgate is called in to become caretaker until they find someone better… His appointment is received nationally with much lack of excitement.
Having taught the under-21s, and been an England player, he knew that the problem was not the football but the dressing room division of players mixing only with their club’s players. Older, established players were moved on, and younger players were introduced for Southgate to build a new team, a team that could win things. Plus, with a nation always thinking a trophy will be ‘Coming Home’ at the start of every tournament – with no real evidence to back that idea up – he called in psychologist Dr Pippa Grange (Gina McKee), whose book, Fear Less: How to Win at Life without Losing Yourself, had attracted Southgate enough to have her work with the squad. As you can imagine, this new philosophy did not go down well with either the players or the coaching team.
He sets them all a doable goal of six years – Qatar 2022.
Dear England is based around the penalty shootouts that have blighted our football for decades, so Grange analyses them from her professional perspective and gets the players to deal with them differently.
The first act ends with winning a penalty shootout!
The second half pretty much follows the same game plan with the audience feeling the highs and lows of the football on the pitch. It often felt like James Graham must have been in those dressing rooms recording the team talks and diatribes that bounced around those sweaty walls between players and staff. This was real. The emotions were real. The penalty shootouts still hurt.
There is the right amount of comedy added to balance out the upsets, with Jordan Pickford playing a blinder on and off the pitch, and a homage to The Full Monty when the players whip off their tournament suits to reveal the England strip beneath.
Football is a team game and the whole squad pulled together to make this an absolute blinder under the guidance of Rupert Goold. I can see this squad winning things.
At the end, we left with hope for the future. Reading the Evening Standard on the train home there was a headline that captured exactly how everyone felt when leaving the National Theatre: ‘Striking proof Southgate boasts the most complete international attack’: England 7 – North Macedonia 0.
I believe it will be Coming Home.
Olivier Theatre, National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 9PX until August 11th. Times: Mon-Sat 7.30pm; Wed & Sat matinees 2pm. Admission: £56 – £89.
Booking: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk
