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Post by n1david on Jan 23, 2024 12:51:46 GMT
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Post by alicechallice on Jan 23, 2024 13:05:58 GMT
I think Penny Keith did this at the Haymarket in the mid-80s didn't she?
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4,171 posts
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Post by anthony40 on Jan 23, 2024 13:18:32 GMT
I just received an email about this.
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Post by alece10 on Jan 23, 2024 13:21:32 GMT
I've just been reading out the title of the play to my work colleagues when I saw the e mail.
I'd pay to go if they reinact it on stage.
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3,528 posts
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Post by Rory on Jan 23, 2024 13:23:05 GMT
Not since 'I Licked a Slag's Deodorant' has a title quite grabbed my imagination.
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8,094 posts
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Post by alece10 on Jan 23, 2024 15:13:59 GMT
Not since 'I Licked a Slag's Deodorant' has a title quite grabbed my imagination. Is that for real? Brilliant if it was |
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3,528 posts
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Post by Rory on Jan 23, 2024 15:41:58 GMT
Not since 'I Licked a Slag's Deodorant' has a title quite grabbed my imagination. Is that for real? Brilliant if it was Indeed, yes. It was a play by Jim Cartwright on at the Royal Court in 1996. |
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Post by ceebee on Jan 23, 2024 19:21:48 GMT
I came here for the comments and wasn't disappointed!
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Post by david on Jan 23, 2024 20:42:03 GMT
I came here for the comments and wasn't disappointed! Same here ceebee! |
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Post by clive on Jan 24, 2024 22:08:52 GMT
I saw this at the Old Red Lion and it's actually rather good.
Qué será, será
Whatever will be, will be
We're going to A&E
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Post by clive on Jan 24, 2024 22:12:55 GMT
Not since 'I Licked a Slag's Deodorant' has a title quite grabbed my imagination. I wasn't aware of that one. My imagination was grabbed by 'Eight Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography'. |
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Post by capybara on Apr 30, 2024 15:52:43 GMT
Once in a while you go along to the theatre of a midweek afternoon with little to no expectations of a show and come away totally blown away; today was one of those beautiful occasions.
Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse For England has arguably the loudest title of any play I’ve ever seen. The subject matter - the story of what led a drunken, coked-up football hooligan to put a pyrotechnic between his bum cheeks - is gimmicky on the surface but Alex Hill’s writing and performance is anything but.
This is what you get when you take (the equally as brilliant) Dear England, strip away funding from the National Theatre, ditch Joseph Fiennes and lose the critics falling over themselves to laud praise on the latest state-of-the-nation piece.
Hill plays Billy. OK, the protagonist’s name has been altered, as has I am sure a lot of the backstory (here, Billy is a Wimbledon fan whereas I recall the real life bum flare man supported Chelsea). Billy is bold, brash, loud… everything you might expect. But the journey Hill takes us on is incredibly nuanced in its storytelling and subtly portrayed. He finds the light and dark in Billy’s life with ease.
This is such a relatable story for those of us who spent decades following a lower league football team up and down the country. It highlights how, when you lack meaning and access to more rounded interests beyond football, it is so easy to go all in and become consumed by a world of violence, cocaine but, most of all, belonging.
This play is heartfelt and, like Dear England, its core themes will appeal to even those with a fleeting interest in the beautiful game. The staging is simple but effective and Sam Baxter’s sound design is up there with any West End play I’ve seen.
Hill told the audience after the bows that it is set for another run at Edinburgh Fringe this summer. I can’t help but think this play is wholly deserving of a wider audience and, with the Euros just weeks away, I genuinely do think London’s more central theatres should be taking a punt on it. Either way, I hope it has a future life in some form as I’d welcome the chance to see it again.
Five stars.
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Post by capybara on Sept 23, 2024 23:54:07 GMT
There’s not much I can add to the praise I heaped on this play when I first saw it in Southwark earlier in the year but, once again, I was blown away by Alex Hill’s performance.
Stopping off at the beautiful Wilton’s Music Hall as part of the show’s post-Fringe regional tour, it somehow packs even more of a punch on second viewing. This time, I wasn’t going in blind and knew the loud title, boisterous opening scenes and razor-sharp humour was the perfect decoy.
Hill’s performance is so disarming in that he lulls his audience - including four of my friends seeing the show for the first time with me - into such a false sense of assuredness. You think you know a Billy Kinley (and your probably do) and the way this play pulls the rug from under you is sublime.
Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse For England is comfortably my play of 2024 so far. I’ll keep banging the drum in saying it is so worthy of a wider audience and, at the very least, West End houses should be looking to slot this in for a run of evenings when their auditoriums are dark, such is the simplicity of the set design and quality of the writing.
The sound design is even better when heard in a venue like Wilton’s as well. I desperately hope there is a future for this show somehow. Never has a show like this felt so poignant.
Five stars (again).
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Post by claireyfairy1 on Sept 24, 2024 8:40:25 GMT
Ahh been trying to find out where else it's going regionally as I'd love to see anything with such strong praise and it sounds like something up my street. Do you know if it's going anywhere else? I cannot find any info!
Edit: Have found it will be playing in Taunton and Birmingham in November, for anyone interested. Will continue the search!
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19,650 posts
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Post by BurlyBeaR on Sept 24, 2024 9:22:01 GMT
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