On a whim, I asked Zoe if she wanted to meet up after my evening class to finally see “Dear England,” the play we have been wanting to watch for months. We bought the least expensive tickets, which surprisingly got us very close to the stage in the small theater, and excitedly sat down to watch the beautiful game unfold.
The premise was simple: the story follows England football manager Gareth Southgate from his first season managing in 2016 to the present. The opening scene was a flashback to Euro 1996, when Southgate’s shot was saved in a penalty shootout against Germany, a moment that has psychologically haunted him since. This moment is recalled again and again as Joseph Fiennes, expertly playing soft-spoken and kind Southgate, finds his footing as the longtime manager.
The play was fantastic. We burst out laughing at the incredible portrayals of our favorite players: Harry Kane’s stoic brilliance, Dele Alli’s cheeky youthfulness, Jordan Pickford’s slightly crazed enthusiasm in goal (the actor, Josh Barrow, was an uncanny doppelganger to the goalie), and Harry Maguire’s incomparable aura. We teared up during an emotional, vulnerable moment between Marcus Rashford (Darragh Hand) and Pippa Grange (Dervla Kirwan), the team’s Head of People and Team Development, psychologist, and resident woman of the men’s team.
The play was structured “like a ballet or an opera” as Southgate said on stage. Act 1: 2018 World Cup - Russia. Act 2: Euro 2020. Act 3: 2022 World Cup - Qatar. Each stage was a benchmark for the team’s growth, not just as footballers but as men. Grange introduces colorful diaries and talking circles to encourage the squad to take their emotions seriously rather than using vulnerability as a punch line. It’s the Ted Lasso lesson: the game isn’t just about winning or developing the best players — it’s about developing the best people, players who support each other on and off the pitch, men who dance together like Nobby Stiles when England won the 1966 World Cup to lift their spirits.
I only started watching football in 2020 as a COVID pastime, but I fell hard and fast for the game. It was surreal to watch the beginning of the play, which featured the 2018 World Cup in Russia that I barely remembered watching during my junior year of high school, when my teachers would project the games onto the whiteboards. Then, I remembered sitting in Zoe’s basement in Virginia, eating pretzel twists and sitting on the edge of my seat during the Euro 2020 penalty kicks. I remembered watching Saka, Sancho, and Rashford’s saved and missed penalty shots, and I remembered Zoe’s dad predicting the horrible, racist abuse the boys faced after. I remembered sitting in Coffee Grounds at Conn last fall, my laptop screen split between The College Voice email inbox and every World Cup game I could stream. Even though I knew what was going to happen, the play had me back on the edge of my seat, watching the scenes unfold with the roar of a crowd in a theater.
Fiennes delivered a powerful monologue, reciting lines from Southgate’s real-life open letter titled “Dear England.” Published on The Player’s Tribune website about a month after the Euro 2020 final England lost to Italy, Southgate—who is notably quiet on social media—spoke out against the racism and abuse that is repeatedly hurled at the players who represent their country on the global stage. In the play, he accompanies his words with actions, encouraging the team to be vocal on social media about what they care about and letting their fans see them as humans, not just players. Fiennes’ performance encapsulated the serious yet heartfelt pulse of the story, reminding those watching that this play and this game are our reality, that words have power both spoken and written.
The final scene was a poignant mirror to the opening. Will Close, who also played the young Southgate in the opening scene, stepped up as Kane to take a penalty kick against France in the 2022 World Cup. It was the quarter-final, and he had already scored one penalty kick earlier in the 54th minute. 30 minutes later, he was back at it again. Kane, who won the 2018 World Cup Golden boot and earned a reputation as a clinical striker for club and country, set the ball down on the stage, waited for the whistle, took one last deep breath, and shot the ball just over the net. He stood in shock, looking at the imaginary goal above the audience. “I never miss,” he murmured. “How did- I never miss.”
Unlike Gareth’s solitary figure in the same position at the start, Harry does not stand alone. Gareth walks over and wraps a devastated Harry in an embrace. His teammates follow.
Comments