Theatre review: Dear England

I said a few weeks ago that the National had managed a bit of a coup by scheduling probably the two most bankable British playwrights at the moment to premiere new work at the same time in its main houses. And if it was Jack Thorne in the Lyttelton, with a play that's already announced a West End transfer, then it must be James Graham in the Olivier, with a play that's bringing in audiences that don't often come to the theatre, and seems likely to have a future life of its own as a result. Dear England is a play about football, so Rupert Goold is the obvious choice of director - I could say it's because he made his name with a dynamic, physical visual style that suits a sports story but let's face it, it's because when he took over at the Almeida he waxed lyrical about how handy his new office was for Arsenal home games, as much as anything he had to say about the theatre itself.

Specifically the subject is the England men's international football team, and its current manager, Gareth Southgate (Joseph Fiennes.) The position is the biggest poison chalice in the game, the focus of the toxic mix of expectation and blame that follows the England team everywhere.

Southgate had more than enough qualification for that particular side of the job: As a player he was most famous for missing a penalty in Euro 96 that made him public enemy number one in the eyes of the press. Graham's play begins by flashing back to that moment, but soon we're in 2016 when, as coach of the youth team, he's asked to become caretaker manager of the senior team when a scandal leads to his predecessor Sam Allardyce (Sean Gilder) resigning after a single match. Rather than accept the fact that he's essentially a temp and caretakers never get the job full-time, Southgate decides to approach the World Cup qualifiers by completely shaking up both the team and the ethos behind it.

He clears out house, firing captain Wayne Rooney (Gunnar Cauthery, offering a Scouse accent at best questionable, but a much more stoical Rooney than in his last stage appearance) and recruits one of the youngest international teams ever, beginning with Harry Maguire (Adam Hugill) and his new captain, Harry Kane (Will Close.) This isn't just about fostering new talent but about eliminating the toxic atmosphere he believes is as big a part of the team's failure as any training problems, beginning by forbidding the players from only socialising with their premiership teammates: This has to be a real team, not just the unpaid duty that takes them away from their lucrative day jobs.

By definition this should be a very male story but Graham shows Southgate trying to change that too: The women's team don't fall under his remit but he tries to have them treated as equally important to the men, even before the Lionesses' 2022 Euro win. The most high-profile female influence on the men's team is sports psychologist Pippa Grange (Gina McKee,) who encourages the players to embrace their feelings about their pasts, each other and what England means to them. Southgate grudgingly allows himself to come under her spotlight too: It's not a huge mental leap to see his revolutionising the team as a reaction to his own trauma, and his wish to spare others from it, but Graham makes convincing and compelling human drama out of it.

This is the point where I should say "of course this isn't really a play about football" but it really is: About football, its place in the English psyche and the way the national team reflects that; and whether that status can consciously be harnessed for good. So as the players become more confident they publicly stand up for what they believe in outside of football, most notably Marcus Rashford's (Darragh Hand) campaign against food poverty, and Raheem Sterling (Kel Matsena) speaking out on racism. Meanwhile Kane, whose famously monotonous voice is a running joke, proves that doesn't have to be a hindrance to being an inspirational speaker.

As evidenced by the fact that I'm struggling to describe everything the play covers there's A LOT going on here, and though Graham and Goold marshall it well there are times when the subject feels bloated. This is after all a story that's still going on in real life, and as it threatens to tick over the three-hour mark we get some hastily dealt-with elements like Kane being barred from wearing a OneLove armband in Qatar. As a show built on energy and optimism, it does sag a bit when the second act needs to deal with backlash, setbacks, and the particular difficulty of having to cut people from the team after it's been turned into such a family.

But even if the show's too long - and it is - it feels shorter than it actually is, largely because of all that energy. Es Devlin's set is a mix of the high-tech, with a huge circular screen above the stage showing scores and video, and the simply theatrical, with the actors pushing 11 wooden lockers around the revolve to create the locations. It allows a lot of room for physicality, that mixes football moves with dance. I don't know that I can approve of the whole team remaining fully-dressed to recreate Bukayo Saka's (Ebenezer Gyau) famous inflatable unicorn moment - I know this is attracting a whole new audience of football fans to the theatre but play fair, give something to the demographic that's been there all along.

For those people more familiar with the real-life players there's obviously something extra to be gained by recognising the actors' impressions of them, but even for someone like me who's not a football fan it's often a very funny play; on the one hand you have the grumpy reactionism of the old guard (often represented by Paul Thornley's Mike Webster,) on the other the enthusiasm of the young players embracing the new style (Josh Barrow's gangly, jittery Jordan Pickford steals the penalty shoot-out scenes.) And the wider impact of the team means many more public figures get cameos, leading to some downright surreal doubling - if Crystal Condie playing both Alex Scott and Theresa May wasn't contrast enough, Wayne Rooney has to share Cauthery with Gary Lineker, Sven-Göran Eriksson and Boris Johnson (I feel like, given the revolving door of England managers before him, the procession of Prime Ministers the unlikely hero Southgate has outlasted makes a point in itself.)

Fiennes has effected quite a transformation as Southgate himself, making a hugely appealing leading man out of his contradictory awkwardness mixed with the steely determination that he must lead and be a role model - and make role models of others. Graham's ridiculously prolific writing career has displayed among other things a laser-focused ability to spot topics with wide appeal, and in this country they don't come much wider than football. I can't see people coming because of that being disappointed, but he also delivers much more than a recreation of World Cup fever, examining the England team's relationship with sometimes uncomfortable elements of national identity, and whether it can be used to help create something more worthy of being proud of.

Dear England by James Graham is booking until the 11th of August at the National Theatre's Olivier.

Running time: 3 hours 5 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Marc Brenner.