Review: Eng-Er-Land (King's Head Theatre)

Review by Sam Waite

⭐️⭐️⭐️

With its triumphs and defeats, sits epic highs and lows, it's perhaps no surprise that sports unite the masses. The universality of supporting your team, leaning on each other when they lose and embracing one another when they win, may be the reason that football in particular is as popular as ever, and well/represented in London's recent theatre scene. A key difference in Hannah Kumari’s Eng-Er-Land, now playing at the King's Head Theatre, is that we follow not a player, a squad, or a manager, but a fan of the beautiful game who never plays it herself.

It's 1997, and Lizzie is a die hard Coventry fan, a proud member of the “sky blue army” and a devotee of only two things – football, and dance. Recruiting the audience as new mates to bring to that day’s game, after her besties have ditched her for a racist upperclassman, Lizzie is a chatterbox who increasingly gives away the darker undertones of the story. Growing up with her Indian mother and her English-born but militantly Scottish father, she always felt like people stared at her in her England shirt, and in the stands is the only place she ever really feels at home.

Kumari’s script can linger a bit too long at times, leaving the final sequence to be much more event-heavy. Clicking in at only an hour, half of this time is spent meandering in Rugby town centre while Lizzie kills time before the next bus. The real skill displayed in the writing is planting seeds of discomfort in Lizzie's jovial monologuing, creating a world where racism is certainly at play, and fractured family dynamics have an ongoing impact, but the exuberance of another trip to this sacred space helps our heroine push them all aside. While a few less nods to the time period may be a refreshing choice, the moments directed to an unlikely patron up front are always hilarious – used just often enough, having this unsuspecting person turned into the footie novice of the evening is a wonderful comedic touch.

Undeniably strong is Nikhita Lesler’s performance. Constantly energised and endlessly boisterous, she is every inch the over-excited teenager headed to do their favourite thing at their favourite place. The rapport she builds with her audience is immediate, so jovial is her attitude and so bright is her smile, that the aforementioned jokes aimed squarely into the front row always land and never come across as mean-spirited. Director Max Lindsay has her use the entirety of the black box stage – this helps to fill out the unseen world, giving a sense of scale, but can also confuse how much space any given location has. Why, for example, does she have room to lay down on even a nearly empty (remember, we're on it too!) bus, and why does her oversized kit bag never seem to be in the way?

A sharp if occasionally unfocused piece of writing with a bright, commanding performance at its heart, Eng-Er-Land may be going through some growing pains, but it’s nothing its sheer enthusiasm isn't able to smooth over. Greatly benefiting from the familiarity of football fandom, and of the connections that build surrounding the sport and its supporters, any quibbles feel so minor after a stirring final monologue strikes the centre of the net.

Eng-Er-Land plays at the King’s Head Theatre until August 10th

For tickets and information visit https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/eng-er-land

Photos by Jack Jeffreys