KIDS WITH A KICK IN THEM
There’s been an interlockof themes in theatre lately: DEAR ENGLAND at the NT displaying Gareth Southgate’s work in fostering the openness and emotional expression of topflight footballers (43% of whom are of black heritage and most of working class). Meanwhile we had FOR BLACK BOYS brilliantly educating the rest of us in what it’s like to be a lad of African heritage in a white majority culture , and how annoyingly you are seen, your nice warm hoodie constantly identified with villainy.
And now, after selling out at the Bush, the newest glitzy in-the-round theatre welcomes Tyrrell Williams’ short and lively three-hander about the teenage seedcorn of top football: three lads kicking around on a Pitch near the Elephant in Southwark while it – and every bit of their familiar ‘endz’ – is under the shadow of destructions ,rehousings and urban renewal. And like Dear England and For Black Boys, it is less about the intricacies and triumphs of football – or even society – than about male teenage masculinity. It’s about vigour and banter and ambition and the hidden tenderness of boys, and the precious fragility of friendship.
Daniel Bailey’s direction – and his cast – are vigorous, skilled and constantly exciting. Pitchside, we watch Omz and Bilal and Joey before the start wandering in foe kickabouts, header teicks and keepy-uppy to the sound of deafening rap. Under way we watch them bantering, teasing (especially Joey ), showing off magnificently and growing increasingly on edge about the coming trials fot the QPR under-18s. The three characters are delicately delineated: Kedar Williams-Stirling is Bilal, a thoughtful ironic tease, FRancis Lovehall is Omz, who looks after his Grandad (anxious phone call about something wrong with the boiler switch) and Emeka Sesay is tall, strong, sweet-natured Joey who always gets put in goal on their practice sessions on the beloved Red Pitch.
Occasional surreal sequences of lights and roaring crowd sounds emphasise their individual dreams – Joey’s save in goal memorable, the others shooting snd scoring in glorious dreams. Edges of concern emerge about the ‘Endz” , the neighbourhood, a favourite chicken shop closing snd others boarded up, threats of family moves (“where IS Kent?” an at one point a horrified reaction to the idea of ending up far away near Liverpool St statin – “YOu’ll come back? To red pitch?”) .
It’s a chimera, the football fortune-seeking. Joey at one point lectures them all about having a plan B if they don’t become Premiership players: he’s doing business studies, Bilal is a maths whiz, Omz into art and design. But when you’re barely seventeen you don’t think that way .
Its spectacular to watch often, choreographed with reckless balletic vigour – we often gasp – and the three are immensely likeable. There are plenty of laughs, though the argot is strong and anyone who doesn’t hang out with south-London estate teens much will miss some lines. The drama itself is slow to build, but does so, to a terrifyingly graphic collision and fight (I am glad to see there are two understudies, this 90-minute performance as stressful as a match). We await the result of the trials alongside them, share moments of remorse (“Shouldna gone to that party” “You’re SUPPOSED to have fun when you’re young!”) .
When Joey turns up for a farewell game and says to the others, who weren’t selected, “If it wasn’t for you, man, I wouldn”t have got in”. No dishonest machismo: formally untrained, he had told the surprised selectors “I kicked ball with my boys”. Lump in the throat. \
sohoplace.org to 10 May
rating 4
theatreCat 