Dear England, Prince Edward Theatre Review: From Also Ran’s to World Beaters (Nearly)

Dear England

• Review Date: 11 January 2024
• Venue: Prince Edward Theatre, London SW1
• Star Rating: *****
• Writer: James Graham
• Director: Rupert Goold
• Screening: Dear England will be in cinema’s nationally on 25 January 2024 and selected dates and locations thereafter in January and February 2024.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” So said Albert Einstein according to popular folklore.

England are in the results business and after the “un-voluntary” resignation of Sam Allardyce in 2016 – seems a lifetime ago – for speaking un-guardedly to undercover journalists about dodgy sounding transfer deals, opportunity came knocking for the then England Under 21 coach Gareth Southgate to step up and hold the Caretaker reigns of England manager. Whilst happy to take on the role – albeit on an interim basis, which he sagely acknowledged to his FA bosses meant the prospect of this becoming permanent was slim to none as that had never happened to an interim before! Crucially from the get go Joseph Fiennes (Gareth Southgate) makes clear he’ll only take on the job under his terms.

As a former player, manager and England youth team coach he was well placed to observe as an insider what worked and what wasn’t working and whilst he admitted he didn’t have the answers he knew he had to find an approach which would deliver what the FA and the nation wanted. He was not willing for his tenure to be the Einstein definition of insanity.

Joseph Fiennes (Gareth Southgate)

What is so fascinating about James Graham’s ‘Dear England’ is not so much the re-telling of the England story, which I’m sure all long suffering football fans know all too well, but the story behind the transformation from perennial penalty missing, also ran’s to consistent match winners. A team playing with hope that was confident in its ability and capacity to fulfil the hopes of a nation.

Dear England was the perfect play to see to start the new year, not just because it was utterly brilliant, but because it’s one of hope, vision and pragmatism – qualities of which anyone with ambition for a good year hopes to set out, plan for and achieve in the year ahead of them.

I loved Dear England from kick off to final whistle. It had everything – great dialogue, youthful energy and exuberance from the players, wisdom and experience from the older men and women, plus lots of good natured banter and humour. Not surprisingly, there was plenty of sadness and pathos as the audience is taken down memory lane to relive distant and more recent heartbreak tournament endings. It was also a pleasure to see the juxtaposition of all this with some of the major political events of the time via cameo’s from actors playing former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Liz Truss. How times have changed when the England Manager outlast not jus tone, but numerous Prime Ministers!

In a way what Southgate identified was a very real form of intergenerational trauma that had passed down from generation to generation; a trauma that lodged both in players and public consciousness (whether consciously or unconsciously for younger players who won’t have real time memories of previous near misses) that said “we always lose at penalties,” “we don’t get past quarter/semi-finals.”

Joseph Fiennes (Gareth Southgate)

Southgate knew you couldn’t change the pattern without examining in some detail the conditions that resulted in the particular psyche and repeat outcomes playing out. The play shows his thought processes, the key analysis that whilst England often had the talent and ability, it was perhaps the mindset, the mental side of things, that needed more attention. That lead to the search for and introduction to the management team of Dr Pippa Grange (Dirvla Kirwan), Sports Psychologist and Head of People and Team Development at The Football Association from 2017 until 2019. She was very reluctant to take up the offer but was persuaded by the grand project Southgate had in mind. Without saying too much more, that was quite poignant as one of the running themes/jokes (we can kind of laugh at it now but it’s still kind of painful if you’re a passionate for success England fan) was Southgate’s infamous penalty shoot out miss in Euro 1996 and hearing Southgate melancholically saying “I never had mental health support” after his miss. He wasn’t complaining but you can imagine/recall the verbal and printed public attacks on him must have been quite something to bear for the then 25 year old Southgate.

Dervla Kirwan (Dr Pippa grange)

I welcomed the insight that Gareth wanted to implement a realistic long term plan – which may or may not outlast his tenure, namely a 3 act story – that didn’t realistically, in his view, see England winning the next tournament ahead – the World Cup 2018, nor Euro 2020 (held in 2021 due to Covid-19 in 2020) but the ambition was to win the Qatar World Cup 2022).That’s a great metaphor for England and a classic one for life – if you have realistic long term goals broken down into bite size goals as opposed to say I want to lose weight e.g. I want to lose say 3 stones by 2026 and tailor make a programme allied to deliberate and purposeful change of habits and timetable towards that.

It’s great to see the story about how the famous “waistcoat” came about – all part of the journey of transforming England’s fortunes. There were superb performances from so many of the cast that successfully conveyed the journey, the struggle, the joys of victory and pain of defeat. I thought it was quite ironic that the biggest cheer from the audience came about when England women’s team lifted the Women’s Euros in 2022 via the inspired coaching of Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman. All credit to her of course, but maybe part of their success owed a debt of gratitude to the mindset changes Gareth had introduced right throughout the FA to give the women’s game a welcome shot in the arm.

Euro 2020 was a great tournament for England. We made the final but have to say in the final  and initial analysis in this writers opinion, it was frankly a bad decision to bring on 3 strikers right at the end just to take penalties. It’s almost insulting that they weren’t considered worthy of playing not only for the first 90 minutes, but barely any of the 30 minutes of extra time, yet somehow they were expected to come on “cold” in Qatar and score a penalty in what may have been their only touch of the ball. No pressure lads! In what other sport would that happen?

The play moves on at “tiki taka” rapid pace, especially during the actual matches, towards what we now know must have been Act 3 in Gareth’s vision board – the Qatar World Cup of 2022. Suffice to say we know how that ended.  Although not ending the way fans would have liked, what had long changed by this point was the perception of England and the national reaction to defeat. Yes defeats still really hurt. Penalties cost us again. However there was an acceptance, real joy and pride in the fact that we’d played really well, we’re a nation now in the mix when it comes to the business end of tournaments and sometimes fate does what fate does and there’s not a whole lot you can do about that. To quote one of the many messages relayed on the electronic screens –  “The struggle is where you find the joy that leads to change,” Dr Pippa Grange.

During the dressing room inquest into one defeat I loved Gareth’s comment: “I know how we lost but why?” That’s really getting to the heart of the matter which is what the play was all about. Going back to the weight analogy “We know HOW we put on weight. To address weight reduction, one needs to ask WHY we put on weight?”

I think there are lessons to be learned in this from our political leaders. Pre-and post Brexit England’s reputation has really suffered. We’re not where we’d like to be nationally and our global reputation has been tarnished. A leader with a long-term vision – beyond the 5 year cycle of general elections needs to do a Gareth Southgate style make over to reset the nation’s perception, capability and ambitions internally and internationally. In a way Southgate’s Dear England letter of 8 June 2021  and 20 March 2020 letter was very much one of a statesman looking at the broader picture, not just “one game/tournament at a time” mantra many managers and players trot out. Those letters gave this play it’s name and basis and clearly embodied Southgate the man and his vision.

I referred at the beginning to inter-generational trauma. It’s also a play of inter-generational memory, perhaps best summed up when one of the younger players asked “What’s Grandstand?” of one of the England set up was talking about the old BBC Sports show. Even some of the earlier England tournament losses will have gone above many of the recent crop of England players heads, but in a footballing sense there’s still that subconscious inter-generational trauma that had to be confronted and cracked hence the absolutely critical role Dr Grange played in addressing and tackling that unspoken issue.

It was great to see so many familiar faces over the years on stage – Gary Lineker, Alex Scott, Sam Allardyce and Sven-Goran Eriksson, who I wasn’t aware of whilst watching the show, but heard about afterwards in the major news story that broke that day that he had announced he’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer with a prognosis of not much more than a year to live. That is very sad news indeed and in way puts into perspective kicking footballs about for a living. Not to diminish that at all, but ironically that was part of the message Southgate conveyed – do your best, treat triumph and failure equally as Rudyard Kipling famously said. Don’t get carried away with either and you’ll be fine.

The cast of Dear England

Is football coming home? Aside from that time England invented the game (19th century) and won the World Cup in 1966 it’s never really belonged here since then – a full 58 years ago. Realistically, home is the nation’s who’ve won the cup home multiple times and only 8 nations have won it in the 94 years and 22 tournaments since the competition started in 1930 – Brazil (5), Germany (4) Italy (4) Argentina (3) Uruquay (2), France (2), England (1) & Spain (1).

At 3 hours including interval this play was the length of 2 matches but it didn’t feel like that. It was fully enjoyable and engrossing from start to finish.  The set was fantastic – ultra modern, with electronic boards flashing key moments, timelines and quotes.

It was a curiosity for a play about national game there was not a football to be seen on stage but you didn’t miss it as the acting said it all. One negative was the amount of profanity in the play. The writer and all involved had the ability to convey a play about football without a football I’m sure they would have had the wit and imagination to convey the language of footballers and the changing room and football world without resorting to swearing. I think it’s something to think about going forward.

Dear England hit the back of the net on numerous occasions. The smiles on faces and standing ovation at the end from a sold out Prince Edward Theatre said it all. That was entirely fitting as that’s one of the goals Southgate had at the outset – to put smiles back on the faces of England fans. Job done. Next stop World Cup 2024. Here’s hoping this fantastic play will require a rewrite with the ultimate happy ending after this Summer’s tournament in Germany.

Dear England will be in cinema’s nationally on 25 January 2024 and selected dates and locations thereafter in January and February 2024.

© Tiemo Talk of The Town

© Photographs – Marc Brenner

Dear England – The Play 

Links:

1. Number of World Cups Won by Country Since 1930 – Statista – 29 August 2023
2. Dear England – Open Letter to England – Gareth Southgate – 8 June 2021
3. Open Letter to England – Gareth Southgate 20 March 2020

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