The Beautiful Game

The Beautiful Game combines the talents of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton and originally opened in September 2000 to mixed reviews due in the main to its extremely gritty content. It had a couple of revivals abroad and a change of name to “The Boys in the Photograph” before having a rewrite in 2015 to the version CLSTG performed.

Using a smaller venue than usual for their main production, Julie took the decision to perform the piece in traverse style giving the audience an intimacy with the story and characters and enhancing the dramatic feel of the production as well as lending itself perfectly to the football pitch setting of the performance area. There was a great deal of thought put into the peripheral support to the performance with the crew dressed as linesman and even “match” appropriate refreshments for the audience.

The story followed the lives and loves of a young, carefree football team and their supporters and how those young lives were torn apart by violence, hatred and brutality at the height of the IRA/UDV conflicts in Belfast. The production was believable and very moving; without exception every single cast member was completely committed to their performance and their Irish accents sounded very authentic. The lighter moments including the awkwardness of John and Mary’s wedding night were also a delight to watch and created a perfect contrast to the harsh scenes that followed.

Clark Adamson played (amongst other cameo roles) Father O’Donnell, a no nonsense leader of the community, his interpretation had the right amounts of gravity and comedy and was well portrayed. As Ginger, the joker of the group, Kieron Jackson gave an engaging performance together with Katherine Saunders as his, at first, reluctant love interest; their duet “Let us Love in Peace” was beautiful. The scene portraying the death of Ginger was poignant and the catalyst to a change in the outlook of Thomas, superbly played by Peter Lynn; the hatred and tension he portrayed was palpable. Rebecca Charlton as Christine and Alex Smith as Del, the couple who did not let their religion stop their love gave excellent character portrayals as did Will Turner as Daniel, the “wheeler dealer” of the gang who ended up being brutally attacked. In the lead roles of John and Mary, Owen Saunders and Rowanne Allon excelled; their acting and vocal performances were outstanding. There were many notable moments but the highlights for me were the trio performance of “The Boys in the Photograph”, and the duets “All the love I have” and “It will never end”.

The lighting perfectly highlighted the performance areas and changes of mood and the sound balance and quality was good. Viki’s choreography complimented the narrative and the 5 piece band was excellent and perfectly accompanied the performers.

Congratulations to Julie, Chinami and Viki for putting together a superb piece of theatre which I am sure will be remembered by both the audience and performers for many years to come.

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