With Leeds United riding high in the Premier League it’s the perfect time for another tour of The Damned United charting Brian Clough’s disastrous 44-day period as manager at Elland Road, which plays at York Theatre Royal on 16 June.
It’s 1974 and Brian Clough, the enfant terrible of British football, wants to revive his managerial career by winning the European Cup with his new team Leeds United. It’s a team full of seasoned international he has openly despised for years who loved their old boss Don Revie, and they all loathe the brash newcomer.
Anders Lustgarden’s adaptation of David Peace’s novel takes audiences inside the tortured mind of ‘Old Big ‘ed’ battling his own demons and a team he can’t tame.
The Damned United is performed by Luke Dickson as Brian Clough, David Chafer as his long-suffering number two Peter Taylor and Jamie Smelt plays all the other characters.
This tour is produced by Red Ladder Theatre Company and their artistic director Rod Dixon directs.
“As a story The Damned United has it all – passion, power struggles, tragedy and a classic anti-hero in Clough – which lends itself brilliantly to theatre,” says Rod Dixon. “Anders’ adaptation captures the grit, poetry and darkness of David Peace’s writing, and by charting the fall of Brian Clough and exposing what made ‘Old Big ‘ed’ tick, audiences are given a fascinating insight into the troubled but brilliant mind of a flawed genius –who to this day, remains one of the most controversial figures in sporting history.”
The rights for The Damned Unitedwere donated by David Peace to Red Ladder Theatre Company for £3.68 – a penny for each page in the novel – as a show of support for the Leeds-based theatre company when it received a 100% cut to its Arts Council Funding.
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