Olivier theatre, London
James Graham has rewritten parts of his hit play to reflect the 2024 Euros, and the gaffer emerges as a progressive, gentle, alternative national leader
It’s unusual for an award-winning, commercially successful play to be revived with a substantially rewritten second half and multiple new characters. James Graham’s reason for dismantling a hit is that his story of Gareth Southgate’s renewal of the England men’s football team was, in effect, written at half-time.
The 2023 premiere had an implied triumphant coda in which the manager’s methods of psychology and motivation won the 2024 Euros. A 2-1 defeat to Spain in the final last July has made this version of the play more reflective than celebratory, although the fact that the Spanish winner was scored by a substitute after an agonising offside review confirms a strong theme: football as a metaphor for life’s tiny margins between good and bad outcomes.
