Dear England – Alhambra Bradford

It’s always struck me as odd that for a nation that invented football there hasn’t been more plays written about the beautiful game that is such a central part of so many of our lives.

James Graham’s Dear England puts that right with an intelligent and emotionally charged piece that genuinely captures the visceral nature of our national obsession with the game. It’s a drama as much about human relationships and the unbearable pressures of holding a nation’s hopes on the shoulders of 11 young men, as it is about kicking a football about. Thankfully Dear England eschews too much of the cheesy onstage attempts to replicate playing at the very highest level that all too often blights football plays.

Once upon a time Gareth Southgate was famous for missing a penalty that dumped England out of the 1996 Euros, and years later he finds himself thrust into managing the national team that Graham rightly describes as the ‘impossible job’ because of the sheer weight of expectations. Over three campaigns in the Euros and two World Cups Graham uses Southgate’s determination to make taking penalties less of an ordeal that becomes a metaphor for how this thoroughly decent man became England’s most consistent manager despite never winning a trophy.

Graham has used interviews and research to create a fictionalised, but utterly believable, saga as Southgate takes a group of young men like England captain Harry Kane and the sensitive Raheem Sterling moulding them into a formidable team as he brings in a psychologist to tackle their darkest fear of failure.

The action all take place on Es Devkin’s brilliant monochrome set that subtly creates both the pitch and the pressure cooker that is an England dressing room as the players wheel around changing room units to create their safe space. It proves the perfect backdrop to project images of where the previous ‘Golden Generation’ had also failed to bring any sort of trophy home.

A strong ensemble plays other key players like stoic defender Harry Maguire and bonkers goalkeeper Jordan Pickford, as well as folk representing the nation, including Natalie Boakye’s hilarious rendition of former PM Theresa May, and Ian Kirkby’s spot on Gary Lineker.

David Sturzaker is pitch perfect as geeky but thoroughly decent football thinker Southgate who through his team manages to exorcise his own demons about that spot kick. Sturzaker who is onstage pretty much throughout offers a really nuanced performance revealing Southgate to be much more than a man in a waistcoat as for the first time he creates a successful England set up where it’s ok to say you’re not.

On a stage reeking of testosterone Samantha Womack offers a different perspective as psychologist Dr Pippa Grange who joins Southgate’s backroom team. Womack is a vastly experienced performer who cleverly essays Grange’s battle to successfully assert her philosophy in a macho world not previously given to much self reflection.

There’s a lot of fun around the angst as the players banter their way to some deeper understanding of each other, but Graham doesn’t shy away from the racism the black players face. Oscar Gough is the pick of the team as the sincere but often tongue-tied skipper Kane, and Ashley Byam as Sterling captures both the player’s mannerisms and his dignity as he angrily explains what monkey chanting from the terraces does to a person.

There were plenty of young and old football fans in the audience who understood all too well the pain of never seeing a trophy come home since 1966.  But you don’t have to be a footie fan as the writing and performances in Dear England is of such quality it becomes an almost Shakespearian tragedy that anyone can enjoy.

Dear England is Alhambra Bradford until Saturday 21st February. To book 01274 432000 or www.bradford-theatres.co.uk

Reviewer: Paul Clarke

Reviewed: 17th February 2026

North West End UK Rating: