FRIENDLY MATCHES. To 17 August.

Young People

FRIENDLY MATCHES
by Vicky Ireland, from poems by Allan Ahlberg

Polka Theatre To 17 August 2002
Tue 2.30pm Wed-Fri 11am & 2.30pm Sat 2pm
Runs 1hr 45min One interval

TICKETS 020 8543 4888
Review Timothy Ramsden 2 August

A happy comedy incorporating football poems into a tale of triumph against the sporting odds.Aimed at young people of 6 and over, Vicky Ireland's play craftily incorporates a series of Ahlberg's football poems into a familiar story – the one about the no-hope team who end up champions of the local league. As so often in these stories, the team's fortunes take an upward swing when a female comes along – co-education hits the changing rooms with a new team member for Inglehurst Juniors.

There's plenty of space; they never field a full team: which must be extra humiliating for young Vinny, the perpetual substitute, standing at the pitch-side in his coat. But even he's to have his moment of glory as the league season reaches its climax.

Ahlberg's football poems cover a range of situations young people can recognise. Fathers and sons, for one: dad's memories of the 1966 World Cup England victory, or the embarrassment of over-helpful dads turning up at matches.

And there's the unsportsmanlike coaching of Mr Bloor, intended to up the - frankly non-existent - goal average by deploying the distraction technique. It works, but only when the hapless home-team goalie, biscuit-guzzling Billy, occupies the net.

Not to mention the longest poem, the cosmic comedy of school hero Bingo Boots and his transfers between paradise and the other side after a life of triumphs on terrestrial pitches.

A robust cast keep the comic action going right up to Inglehurst's own inferno against the all-female terrors, the Betsy Street Booters. Joe Cushley, as the ample-figured coach, has a good line in comic understatement and another in optimistic encouragement. There's a solidity to Ben Redfern's Jonathan, the good-hearted lad in love with the beautiful game.

Anne Rowe finely contrasts chubby, lost Billy, clinging to Bloor's ironic description of him as the team's secret weapon, with keen football ace Charlotte.

And Neal Wright moves niftily between patient Vinny, a bustling Caribbean site agent's wife cheerily offering half-time oranges doused in cod-liver oil, and her husband, engaged in his own unfriendly match against the local rat.

Happily, by full-time, not only have all the team done good: even the rat's sporting a team scarf.

Mr Bloor: Joe Cushley
Brian/Bingo Boot: Lewis Anthony Davis
Marcus/Dixie/Mrs Green: Liz Fost
Mr Markwick the Referee/Kevin: Steven Markwick
Jonathan Green/Brian's Dad: Ben Redfern
Charlotte/Billy: Annie Rowe
Mrs Brady/Mr Brady/Vinny/Mr Green: Neal Wright

Director: Vicky Ireland
Designer: Abi Bown
Lighting: Ian Scott
Composer: Steven Markwick
Choreographer: Ian Waller

2002-08-05 08:19:10