WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARE FOR ENGLAND*

Garrick Theatre

★★★★

“an hour of pure theatre comedy gold”

Just once in a while a piece of writing and a solo performance comes along that leaves you tingling as you leave the theatre. Jodie Comer’s Prima Facie was one. Now, at the opposite end of the scale of experience, comes Alex Hill with his one-man show about football fandom, its heights and its depths.

‘Why I Stuck A Flare up my Ar*e for England’ has been around for three years and, frankly, there is little for a reviewer to say that hasn’t been already said. It premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023, returned in 2024 and 2025, and for the last year has been touring in the UK and Australia. It’s been playing to sell-out audiences (last night was no exception) and has consistently garnered four and five stars.

So why I hadn’t heard of it (nor had my companion) is a bit of a mystery but here is where the brilliance of writer/performer/producer Alex Hill starts. Football dramas (the Ted Lasso TV series excepting) are not my usual fare. I barely noticed the European championship game when the #bumflare incident went viral and inspired this exposition. The current excitement around FIFA World Cup 2026 leaves me cold. Yet this could scarcely be a better time to see this show. It is both dazzling and devastating in its fantasy exploration of the inner life of fictional football fanatic Billy Kinley. And an eye opener into the poignancy of a simple childhood love of the game gone wrong.

Billy is a character based on a real-life England fan who put a lit flare in his buttocks before the 2021 Euros final. Hill – a 2022 graduate of Arts Educational Schools – has transformed this laughable event into just over an hour of pure theatre comedy gold. His energy is jaw dropping. Downing in quick succession two pints of, apparently, beer; throwing out his arms shouting ‘It’s match time’; bounding about the simple stage engaged in virtual fighting; the pace leaves you gasping. And then, as his downward spiral into drink, drugs, tribal battles, racism and fatal relationships spins him into excess, you suddenly see his world explode and Hill delivers an extraordinary transition towards a tear-jerking, sombre finale.

There is genius in here too, with the matching of football culture against classic arts ‘culture’. In a hilarious episode, Billy finds himself manoeuvred into taking his girlfriend to what he calls a ‘Martini’ performance of Les Misérables, just when he should be at his beloved Saturday afternoon match. Throughout this show, Hill is laughing at himself, at us and, of course, at football obsession.

The monologue is not completely without flaws: some strange sound design early on and a couple of narrative connections lost. Set against this was a truly engaged audience, shouting encouragement as he necked those pints, singing along to the match anthems, and roaring with laughter as he threw himself around afterwards. Clearly most of them, unlike me, knew what they were in for. And everyone was on their feet at the end, quietening only as Hill – crying himself – read out this thanks and credits, mostly to show director Sean Turner who took a bet on him back in 2023.

‘Why I Stuck a Flare…..’ is leaving now for New York. Not surprising, in 2026; yet I can’t help wondering what American audiences, who grew up with films like Jerry Maguire and Field of Dreams, will make of this extraordinary addition to football arts.

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARE FOR ENGLAND*

Garrick Theatre

Reviewed on 21st June 2026

by REVIEWER

Photography by Rah Petherbridge

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE

★★★★

“The dancers show their beauty and abundance of talent throughout”

One of the thrilling experiences in theatre and performance is to see the stars of tomorrow start to emerge. Not yet fully formed, but with many of the jigsaw pieces in place. Who, might you guess, will rise to the heights and who fall by the wayside?

We can imagine the excitement of the ballet world when a boy, turning 18, the 11th child of an impoverished working class family in Havana won the gold medal at the Prix de Lausanne – before climbing to the peak of international ballet. Now, for the next three nights at Sadlers Wells East, we get to see how Carlos Acosta – now founder of the Cuban Dance Academy and Director of the Birmingham Royal Ballet – is paving the way for others like him. Ten extraordinary young graduates from Acosta’s junior academy are performing four pieces in a programme that is vibrant, full of energy and poignancy, and that draws heavily on Cuba’s cultural heritage.

Acosta Danza Yunior is only three years old, designed to be a bridge for 18-21 year olds between the Academy and Acosta Danza. So what we have here is technical skill and youthful energy in its first flowering. Every one of the dancers casts on stage the shadow of their devotion to dance and the discipline of their training. We also have lovely pieces by artistic creators connected to Acosta and Cuba: Susana Pous, Didy Veldman and Juliano Nunes.

The first piece, in two parts, is a fluid and tragic exposition of migration. Eight dancers come together in bounded space – an interpretation of island – flow as if a single structure and then break up as individuals silently depart and those that remain briefly mourn. Lighting streams from the side and an overhanging sun/moon light up the otherwise dark scene. One note on the programme – it lists one piece for the first half of the evening but it unfolds as two parts — it seems to be a work sitting somewhere between a single vision and two distinct pieces.

In the second half, two dancers open with Kit Holder’s Capriccio, inspired by René Magritte’s ‘The Lovers’. It is a physical and evocative exploration of connectedness and separation. For the final piece the eight dancers of the first half return in a journey the programme describes as ‘from general sentiment to spiritual essence’. It appears to echo some of the ideas of the first half of the show, but is subtle in its emotion and enhanced by a fragile art installation by Glenda Leon of water lily flowers moving and hanging overhead.

The dancers show their beauty and abundance of talent throughout. Not yet in their prime, some emotional depth has yet to be developed in their performance. This will no doubt come as they move forward, and extraordinary connection replaces what seems a degree of reticence in feelings. Overall, this is a rare opportunity to see what may be to come for international dance and where Carlos Acosta may still be achieving his best.

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WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY AR*E FOR ENGLAND

★★★★

Garrick Theatre

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARE FOR ENGLAND*

Garrick Theatre

★★★★

“an hour of pure theatre comedy gold”