I often talk about weirdly specific themes that come around in theatre, and this year we're getting one that's also specific to a venue: After
Gunter, the Royal Court Upstairs once again gives us a play about mediaeval football matches between entire villages that could go on for days and risked turning violent - in a story with an undercurrent of witchcraft. The characters in Stewart Pringle's
The Bounds don't actually get anywhere near enough the action to get injured by it, which isn't to say you feel confident they won't come to harm: On the outskirts of the Northumberland village of Allendale, Percy (Ryan Nolan) and Rowan (Lauren Waine) have taken their places for the annual Whitsun match against hated local rivals Catton. But in practice they're essentially spectators, and not even in a good location: They're clearly not star players, and have been ditched somewhere so far out of the way that even a game that takes place over several miles is unlikely to reach them.
