★★★★

“Tommy is a flawed character, but the play he finds himself in is a pretty faultless portrayal of him”

If you’re a playwright and your closest friend is an actor, what is the best birthday present you can think of? A few years ago, Nick Dawkins hit upon the idea of writing a play for his bestie – Tom Claxton – who at the time was studying at LAMDA. He filled the script with “the things we loved, the music, dancing, jokes and in jokes” and presented it to him on his birthday. A wonderful gesture. But little did he know that just a few years later it would be an even greater gift for the theatre going public. Dawkins’ sixty-minute one hander is a compellingly written monologue, spectacularly well-crafted and wrapped up in Claxton’s engrossing performance.

“A Manchester Anthem” is a mix of autobiography and biography with oodles of artistic licence thrown in, which makes it instantly relatable, even if you don’t share the background of its protagonist. Claxton plays Tommy (and a dozen other characters, but we’ll come to that), a working-class Mancunian who has been accepted into Oxford. He is the first in his family to go to university. The first in his street in fact. The play charts his final day and night before he heads down south to begin his new life.

It is Tommy’s final shift as a waiter and, just as he is about to clock off for the last time, a couple of posh and privileged school mates wander in for their skinny, soya, lattes. They are a world apart from Tommy and, in his eyes, represent the world he is about to enter. It fills him with feelings of trepidation and imposter syndrome but nevertheless he accepts an invitation to a house party that night (spurred on by encouraging words from his real mates). What follows is a high energy tsunami ride from the coffee shop to the clubs, and through the streets, houses and people at each end of the class spectrum. From the moment we first see Claxton, elastically writhing to N-Joi’s ‘Anthen’ wearing bright orange underpants, we suspect we are in for something different. On the surface, this rite of passage story has more than a shade of familiarity. There are moments when it treads that path, but the observant writing is fresh enough to veer away from its own genre.

Claxton immediately has us in the palm of his hand – and he keeps us there. A finely nuanced performance, he slips easily into the other characters with subtle precision and expert timing. His supercilious boss at the café, the posh boys, the pseudo-socialist girls, his down-to-earth-bordering-on-psychotic mates, his estranged father… and so on. The various locations are seamlessly evoked, too, courtesy of Anna Niamh Gorman’s ingeniously simple cardboard box set that symbolises the packing away of an old life, but later transforms and lights up to evoke Manchester’s clubland. Sam Baxter’s soundtrack and Caelan Oram’s lighting set each time and place in stone, while Izzy Edwards’ masterful and lively direction leaves no time for anything to be set anywhere. It is a fast-paced production, but every moment counts – and some of the best lines hang in the air, frozen for a moment for us to relish, before being swept back into the thrilling momentum of the play.

Without being a social commentary, the show mirrors aspects of society and class divide. Tommy has more chips on his shoulder than the local chippie, but there is no anger. In its place is intelligent analysis, and a fearful empathy. The various characters are soft targets. The real victim of Dawkins’ writing is society at large and the unfairness of its inbuilt hierarchies. Tommy’s greatest fear is that of betraying his origins. The fact that these issues can be dressed up in humour is testament to Claxton’s fine acting and interpretation of the text.

The final moments are quite moving. It doesn’t end with a bang. Nor a whimper. But something in between which touches us with emotional honesty. Tommy is a flawed character, but the play he finds himself in is a pretty faultless portrayal of him. Tommy might fear rejection, but “A Manchester Anthem” has no need to share that feeling. A real gift of a show.

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.

A MANCHESTER ANTHEM

Riverside Studios

★★★★

“Tommy is a flawed character, but the play he finds himself in is a pretty faultless portrayal of him”

A MANCHESTER ANTHEM

Riverside Studios

Reviewed on 20th August 2025

by Jonathan Evans

Photography by Flood Ltd

Recent reviews from this venue:

A MANCHESTER ANTHEM

A MANCHESTER ANTHEM

A MANCHESTER ANTHEM

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”

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:

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND

WHY I STUCK A FLARE UP MY ARSE FOR ENGLAND

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