The Red Lion
Bristol Old Vic, The Weston Studio

PATRICK MARBER’S  tightly written three-hander is both a paean and a critique of the beautiful game. Set in a the changing room of a semi-pro, non-league soccer team riding at the top of their league, traditional values and club loyalty face the challenge of the modern financial game.

The clash of ethics plays out around the new wunderkind discovery, Jordan trapped between fallen, local legend and now loyal, club kit man, Yates and bullish, ambitious manager, Kidd.

Thomas McGee does a solid job on his stage debut as the damaged youngster attempting to find his place in the murky world of football arrangements, agents and transactions where his principles and need for success are under strain from the outset.

Traditional club values are reflected in the effectively restrained performance of David Lloyd as Yates, the washed-up, former star now volunteering to iron the kit and look after the changing rooms. The arrival of a young prodigy and the hope he offers the team inspire him to take on a paternal role in opposition to his manager’s mercenary plans.

Much of the energy of this production arises from Joe Sims’s dynamic performance as the larger-than-life, recognisable club manager whose amusing, opinionated verbosity is frequently targeted at deriding the world around him or furthering his own ambitions. Struggling with divorce, debts and his club board, the new player offers a lucrative if morally dubious way forward once he can badger him into signing a contract.

Director Ed Viney intelligently handles the three-way battle so that the microcosm of the changing room represents the larger world of inter-generational tensions, trust, loyalty and self-interest.

His programme note referring to Bill Shankly’s claim that football was much more than a matter of life and death, does not sound quite such a hyperbole within the context of this skilfully crafted nugget of a play that will appeal to a far wider audience than just soccer aficionados.

Runs until 19 Feb, box office: bristololdvic.org.uk