Writer: Tyrell Williams
Director: Daniel Bailey
In a south London estate on the red pitch are three teenage boys, all hoping for something more. Over the summer we follow them as they grapple with football trials, urban machismo and the gentrification of the area they grew up in.
This play, at its heart, is about three boys. Bilal Amaral played by Kedar Williams-Stirling is tightly laced and super-focused on the upcoming QPR trials. Omz Richards played by Francis Lovehall is a young carer brimming with testosterone angst and always looking for a fight, and Joey Sesay played by Emeka Sesay is sensible, pragmatic and cheeky. There’s not a huge amount of coming-of-age to be done over such a short period with such emotionally inarticulate teenagers but this story is sweet and real and pinpoints with great humour a moment in time that is happening over and over again in every corner of this city.
All three actors are brilliant. They play off each other as if they really have been friends all their lives. The constant momentum, the back-and-forth kicks of a ball, the banter, the games, the dancing, the fights, it all lends itself to a feeling of adolescent restlessness. Williams-Stirling as Bilal is especially brilliant and gracefully weathers the ups and downs, the seriousness and un-seriousness of teenage aspirations. Movement by Dickson Mbi is accomplished, especially a particularly slick fight scene which contrasts its stark realism against the more poetic movement that comes before it in a way that immediately puts us in our place, reminds us that these characters are children and they haven’t got it all figured out.
At 90 minutes long, Red Pitch could afford to lose about 25 minutes. It is at points tiresome to hear the same conversation about “regeneration” for the third time without much new being added. Playwright Tyrell Williams does an excellent job of setting up the relationships between the boys and the context in which they live almost immediately; we don’t then need him to do it a few more times just for good measure. The acting is nervy and fast-paced in an exciting way, it just doesn’t do quite enough to keep the momentum of the script which slows to a grinding halt after the outcome of the football trials is revealed.
Red Pitch is polished, well-designed, well-acted, funny and heartwarming. At some moments the points raised about gentrification aren’t as emotionally resonant as they should be. The irony is not lost that it’s showing in an area of London that has already had much of its population pushed out, and if you’d like to drown your sorrows about that you can get a pint for the low low price of only £6.60 in The Bush Theatre bar! This play might not be a must watch but it’s definitely a you really should watch.
Runs until 20 September 2023
