Tag Archives: Amber Woodward

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND

★★★★★

Southwark Playhouse Borough

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WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND at Southwark Playhouse Borough

★★★★★

“Alex Hill is outstanding. He performs the role of Billy with such energy and dynamism it’s exhausting just to watch”

Ever wondered what might cause a man to do something as reckless as sticking a flare up his bum at the World Cup final? In the appropriately titled Why I stuck a Flare Up my Arse for England, writer, performer and producer Alex Hill gives us his interpretation which is funny, charming and surprisingly heartfelt all at once.

Hill introduces us to Billy Kinley, a kid from southwest London who grows up with an inherited love for the game. He and his best mate Adam are football mad – kicking about in the park and attending local club AFC Wimbledon weekly. When they leave school, Adam gets a job in the City whilst Billy works at the hairdressers run by his parents, but they still meet at the local café every week for a full English before the game. Then they meet ‘the King’ of the old firm, inexplicably named Winegum, and his equally obtusely named mates. Billy gets stuck in with the boozing, coke, and fighting, but Adam is reticent and their friendship starts to change.

There’s a lot that’s only briefly touched on, or left entirely unsaid: about Billy and Adam’s relationship but also about Billy’s grief over his mum’s death, and his burgeoning relationship with Daisy, the café’s waitress. Whilst this may slightly hamper the exposition, it certainly adds to the sense that Billy is coasting through life, not thinking too deeply about anyone or anything, just to get by. It’s intelligently and intentionally emotionally shallow, right up until the closing moments.

 

 

Alex Hill is outstanding. He performs the role of Billy with such energy and dynamism it’s exhausting just to watch. Under Sean Turner’s direction, Hill darts across the stage from pillar to post; necks not one, but two pints (the second largely, excusably, going down his front); and essentially barely takes a breath throughout. Hill even dials the energy up to eleven after taking his first line and having a rager at Infernos; or when he gets into his first fight and keeps punching until white noise takes over; or when the drum beat of Match Day, pints, gear, fight builds to a climax. Props must also be given to his script, littered with wry observations and rhetorical devices that keep the audience tittering throughout.

For a one man, one hour long show there are a surprising number of locations, each subtly situated with expert lighting, sound and stage design. Designer Joel Clements’ immediately sets the tone with distressed England flags of various shapes and sizes stitched together to form an almost quilted backdrop. Matt Cater’s lighting design expertly delivers, making the most of the full rig of the Southwark Playhouse. Together with sound designer Sam Baxter, the full design of this show leads to particular moments of playfulness – for example where a pool table appears on stage from a green rectangular gobo; or when the lights come up on the audience and strings of fairy lights appear accompanied by the sound of tuning strings with Alex as Billy shimmying into a seat at a West End theatre.

This interplay between theatre and football is skilfully observed by Hill. It’s a theme that’s definitely in vogue as evidenced by the abundance of football themed theatre of late. The National Theatre’s blockbuster ‘Dear England’ and the Bush Theatre’s ‘Red Pitch’ both received stellar reviews from this site. As Hill uses Billy to point out, it’s perhaps the theatricality and the drama of the game that makes football ripe for interpretation on the stage. But more than that, for men in particular, football is also the primary source of community and friendship in their lives – making it a thoroughly apt way to explore the contemporary male psyche. For a piece with such a plainly humorous title it’s a surprisingly multi-layered exploration of masculinity, friendship, romantic relationships and family.


WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND at Southwark Playhouse Borough

Reviewed on 22nd April 2024

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Rah Petherbridge

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at Southwark Playhouse venues:

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE VALLEY OF FEAR | ★★½ | March 2024
POLICE COPS: THE MUSICAL | ★★★★ | March 2024
CABLE STREET – A NEW MUSICAL | ★★★ | February 2024
BEFORE AFTER | ★★★ | February 2024
AFTERGLOW | ★★★★ | January 2024
UNFORTUNATE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF URSULA THE SEA WITCH A MUSICAL PARODY | ★★★★ | December 2023
GARRY STARR PERFORMS EVERYTHING | ★★★½ | December 2023
LIZZIE | ★★★ | November 2023
MANIC STREET CREATURE | ★★★★ | October 2023
THE CHANGELING | ★★★½ | October 2023
RIDE | ★★★ | July 2023
HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS … | ★★★★★ | May 2023

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page

 

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE

★★★½

Southbank Centre

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FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE at the Southbank Centre

★★★½

“the choreography excels – subtly, not in caricature, allowing the dancer’s skills to shine”

The latest work from Hofesh Schecter, From England with Love, is exactly what you might expect from the title. An exploration through dance of England; its long, storied history and how its people use or rebel against it in their search for meaning.

It is an odd quirk that ‘outsiders’ are often most incisive in understanding a place and its people. Schecter was born and grew up in Israel, but moved to the UK in 2002 and has been based here since – nearly half his life and the majority of his adult life. The potential insights this unique perspective could bring filled me with hope for a daring and soul searching performance; particularly on learning that the piece was first performed by Nederlands Dans Theatre 1 in the Hague barely a year after the UK left the EU. Could this be deeply political as well as beautiful?

For its UK premiere at the Southbank Centre, the piece is performed by new recruits to Schecter II, Hofesh Schecter Company’s paid professional development programme for 18-25 years this year drawn from the UK but also Italy, Belgium and even Iceland. As well as choreographing the piece, the multi-talented Schecter has also composed the score including works from English composers – Elgar, Tallis, Monk and Purcell (after whom one of the Southbank Centre rooms is named) – spliced with rock and electronic.

It’s a strong start, with the dancers inconspicuously dressed in school uniforms performing a ports de bras in unison. As the movements are so small and intentional, it’s the dancers faces you focus on – each telling a story of hope and anticipation that slowly turns to steel as if hardened by the world.

Rainfall interrupts the scene, and movements become bigger and more chaotic, with the group forming a swirling squall. Choral music begins, and we are transported to the playground where hops and skips abound. These early moments are impressive both for the quality of the movements and the way in which dancers use the space. Hofesh Schecter’s choreography draws your eye from one side of the stage to the other, following a dancer or two, before being captured by another and taken off again in another direction. Again the facial expressions set the dancers apart with Holly Brennan’s innocent school girl demeanour transformed to loud-mouthed lout particularly delightful. It’s lively staging and a luxuriant use of space enhanced by wonderful lighting by Tom Visser.

But the piece loses its way in the middle. A series of vignettes serving as clumsy exposition took it from subtle to stereotype. Can England really just be reduced to violence, yobs and hooliganism? Juxtaposed with cups of tea, the royal wave and a few feeble keepy-uppys (Come on En-ger-land)? The longer it went on the more meaningless these motifs became.

We end where we began, in form and in spirit. The dancers drift from side to side, unmoored and unburdened – directionless. Without the soundtrack of England’s illustrious history where will they go? It’s through exploration of themes in this way that the choreography excels – subtly, not in caricature, allowing the dancer’s skills to shine.


FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE at the Southbank Centre

Reviewed on 18th April 2024

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Tom Visser

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

REUBEN KAYE: THE BUTCH IS BACK | ★★★★ | December 2023
THE PARADIS FILES | ★★★★ | April 2022

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE

FROM ENGLAND WITH LOVE

Click here to see our Recommended Shows page