The Red Lion

A blog on the political economy of football is not normally the place for theatre reviews, but plays on football are rare and especially on non-league football, indeed I cannot recall one. Last night I went to see The Red Lion at the Trafalgar Studios in London about a fictitious Northern League team of that name.

One of the strengths of the production derives from the fact that the writer Patrick Marber has been directly involved in non-league football. He was one of a number of people who rescued Lewes FC in Sussex and served on the board for a number of years.

There are just three characters in the play. The manager has done the rounds in the non-league game and is involved in various fiddles to augment his salary. The kitman was originally a player for the club and was involved in a FA Cup run which boosted their finances and allowed them to build a new stand. He was later an unsuccessful manager who got them relegated. After living on the streets, he was discovered by supporters and brought back to the club. His whole identity is bound up with the club. Both he and the manager are estranged from their families.

The player is a talented young hopeful who has a knee problem after it was smashed with a baseball bat by his father at the age of fourteen. He is taking steroids to try and deal with the problem. He keeps this secret, but it comes out when he is sent on trial to League One club in a shady deal from which the manager would take a cut. The player needs some persuading to go, it being pointed out that all he gets at the end of the match is a Tesco sausage roll, 'it's not even Greggs!' His use of steroids is inevitably discovered and the League One club complains to the FA, leading the manager to lose his post and the kitman to be banished from the club. The young player's future is unclear, but is probably not good.

The whole play pivots around the relationship and tensions between these three. There are various unseen figures such as the voluntary groundsman who is reluctant to 'fork' the pitch and the owner, a wealthy builder who plans to develop the ground and build a 'breeze block community stadium out by the by-pass.'

A theme of the play is that the club was once bound together by a sense of community, but that is no longer there. Possibly the play paints too bleak a picture of non-league football. Certainly my own non-league club (Leamington) is extensively involved in the community and shareholdings are dispersed among fans.