Scotland

Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil – Royal Lyceum Theatre

You could attend Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil at the Lyceum for Ricky Ross alone and leave entirely satisfied. Fortunately, this exquisitely produced new work gives us much more besides.

Part gig theatre, part football odyssey, part meditation on grief and belonging, this is one of those deeply Scottish productions that somehow becomes universal precisely because it is so rooted in place. Cowdenbeath may be the setting, but emotionally this could be any town we have tried to escape and yet remain permanently tethered to.

Adapted by Gary McNair from Ron Ferguson’s original story, the play follows Sally, played quite brilliantly, with warmth, intelligence and emotional precision by Dawn Steele. After leaving Cowdenbeath behind to build a new life in London as a solicitor, she is reluctantly dragged back home following the death of her father. His final wish sounds simple enough, his ashes are to be scattered on the pitch at Central Park after a Cowdenbeath win. Unfortunately, this is the catastrophic 1992,93 season, and victories are in desperately short supply.

What follows is both hilarious and quietly heartbreaking, a classic hero’s journey refracted through the lens of lower league Scottish football. Sally does not want to return to the scene of familial grief and grey concrete, but like all great mythic protagonists, circumstances compel her homeward. Cowdenbeath itself becomes a kind of emotional Ithaca, a small windswept kingdom of memory, loyalty, disappointment and love.

At the centre of it all stands Ricky Ross, composer, performer and emotional anchor of the evening. Ross does not merely accompany the action; his music circulates through the production like blood through veins. His voice, instantly recognisable from decades of songwriting brilliance with Deacon Blue, wraps itself around the audience with astonishing warmth and authority. Quite honestly, the specific lyrics almost cease to matter. Hearing that voice live, filling the Lyceum auditorium with melancholy, wit and compassion, is itself a deeply moving experience.

Ross remains one of Scotland’s great singer-songwriters, and Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil understands exactly how to use that gift. The production becomes less a conventional play and more an act of communal remembering.

Barrie Hunter is also superb as Dad, full of humour, stubbornness and affection, while James Brining’s direction keeps the entire piece beautifully balanced between comedy and grief without ever tipping too far into sentimentality.

Technically, the production is first class throughout. Jessica Worrall’s set and costume design captures both the intimacy and melancholy of the story, while Simon Wilkinson’s lighting and Lewis den Hertog’s projection design are exceptional, creating a constantly shifting visual landscape of memory, football mythology and emotional weather. The audio-visual work here is genuinely top tier theatre craft, immersive without ever becoming intrusive. Pippa Murphy’s sound design completes a production of remarkable polish and professionalism.

What makes the evening so special is its generosity. There are tears, laughter, songs, football chants, family tensions, missed opportunities and fragile reconciliations. It understands that football clubs are rarely just football clubs. They are repositories of identity and memory, places where people store parts of themselves.

By the end, the Lyceum feels less like a traditional theatre and more like a communal gathering place, somewhere between a football stand, a folk club and a wake.

What else could you want?

Don’t miss this one.

Playing until Saturday 23^rd May

Reviewer: Greg Holstead

Reviewed: 13^th May 2026

North West End UK Rating: