‘Dear England’ review: When football success becomes moral victory
What makes a good leader? When humble and sweet-natured Gareth Southgate was appointed head coach of the England men’s football team in 2016, many fans and commentators felt he lacked the kahunas for the role, that he was just too nice. But over the past seven years he has overseen a remarkable transformation in the fortunes of the England team, making it stronger and more exciting to watch than at any time in recent memory.
The ups and downs of Southgate’s tenure are portrayed with a mix of playfulness and moral seriousness in ‘Dear England’, directed by Rupert Goold, which runs through August 11 at London’s National Theatre. frolicking with plenty of irreverent humor, though the story borders on hagiography, and the core message about embracing male vulnerability is so laborious.
The piece details the team’s involvement in three recent major tournaments, starting with its surprise run to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup in Russia; then comes an embarrassing defeat to Italy in the Euro 2020 final, followed by an impressive display, culminating in an unfortunate quarter-final, at last year’s World Cup in Qatar.
The action on the pitch is evoked through dynamic set pieces, choreographed by Ellen Kane and Hannes Langolf, in which the players reenact key moments in extensive simulations, complete with slow-motion sequences and still goals. These are kitsch, but thankfully short, as most of the activity takes place off the pitch: in dressing rooms, team meetings and press conferences whose settings are rendered with clever simplicity by the designer Es Devlin.
Joseph Fiennes is excellent as Southgate, who is portrayed as self-effacing but assertive, an approachable father figure to his young charges. Will Close, as England captain and star player Harry Kane, plays off the striker’s famously laconic manner, providing a bathetic counterpoint to the coach’s heartfelt rhetoric. Adam Hugill is just as amusing as defender Harry Maguire, who is portrayed as a sweet fool – not the sharpest tool in the box, but solid and reliable. Kel Matsena delivers a spirited performance as Raheem Sterling, who teams up with Bukayo Saka (Ebenezer Gyau) to speak out against racism after England’s black players are targeted for abuse.
The main female character in this necessarily male-dominated lineup is the sports psychologist Pippa Grange (Gina McKee), hired by Southgate to help the players express their feelings and overcome self-doubts. When an unreconstructed member of the coaching staff questions the need for her services, she reminds him that psychology has been at the root of England’s past failures: “These are men, who may or may not deal with fear,” she says.
The play’s author, James Graham, is known for his political theatre, with hits such as ‘Ink’ and ‘Best of Enemies’, and ‘Dear England’ has a decidedly activist undertone. Southgate’s soft-spoken nature, emotional intelligence, and left-leaning politics — he supported Black Lives Matter and was outspoken about mental health issues — are kryptonite for a certain type of reactionary sports jock. So it’s tempting to see his story as an allegory of culture war, pitting touchy liberalism against old-school machismo.
Unfortunately, the play leans a little too heavily on this, with pantomimic cameos from some of Britain’s recent Conservative prime ministers – Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss – pandering to the supposed prejudices of cosmopolitan London theatergoers in a way who comes across as endearing and self-righteous. This is sped up in the second half, which is considerably less funny and feels rushed: the 2020 and 2022 tournaments are run through at a fast pace, as opposed to the more relaxed pace before the break.
Southgate’s playing career is best remembered for a decisive miss in a penalty shootout against Germany in the semi-final of the 1996 European Championship played in London, which resulted in England’s elimination from that tournament. A personal redemption story forms a compelling subplot to the main story, and it is cruel irony that Southgate’s England side also lost the Euro 2020 final in a penalty shootout on home soil. That Southgate has yet to win a trophy – the England men’s team still hasn’t won a major tournament since 1966 – remains a powerful trump card for its doubters. And so the piece’s celebratory tenor feels a little out of place.
Still, ‘Dear England’ isn’t so much about sports as it is about culture. The technical and tactical underpinnings of the England team’s resurgence are conspicuously underexposed in this narrative: the team’s improvement on the field is directly linked to a shift in moral values, and we are made to understand that correlation equals causation. You can totally go along with everything Southgate stands for and still find this pussly simplistic.
Dear England
Through August 11 at the National Theater in London; nationaltheater.org.uk