Life-long football supporter Patrick Marber sets his play in the drab changing room of a non-league football club of a small town. A promising young player, asked to do something he knows to be morally wrong, cries out: “It’s illegal!” Back comes the immediate retort: “It’s football!” The beautiful game is no longer beautiful. Football and corruption go hand in hand. How long will it be before the Augean stables are cleaned out?
Marber takes his time and it isn’t until he is into the second act, that the drama, directed by Ian Rickson, really takes hold. Calvin Demba as the youngster and Peter Wight and Daniel Mays as his mentors with totally conflicting ideas, are exemplary.