Football drama scores again in extra time

Olivier at NatiOnal Theatre

James Graham’s Dear England, telling the story of Garteh Southgte’s term as manager of the England men’s football team, has returned to the National Theatre with a new cast and a new ending. The reviewers were as enthusiastic as ever, with 4 star reviews across the board with the exception of one full house

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

5 stars ★★★★★

Fiona Mountford in i-news reassured us: ‘Dear England remains a towering achievement. Graham and director Rupert Goold, each the best of their kind working today, remain a dream team of a strike force, with Graham’s lively and often larky dialogue matched by Goold’s gloriously kinetic production.’

4 stars ★★★★

Ben Dowell for The Times confirmed, ‘That it remains powerful and poignant theatre is a sign of how convincingly the play speaks to profound themes beyond results on the pitch. The idea of an England manager being a storyteller is obviously a playwright’s fantasy but it remains a beguiling one.’

’it is consistently, relentlessly entertaining,’ declared Time Out’s Andrjez Lukowski.

The Standard’s Nick Curtis found ‘A return fixture proves James Graham’s end-to-end, heart-in-mouth football drama a winner.’ ‘this is a team effort, which captures the communal joy and heartache of sport, while taking a sharp look at our national identity. The lads done good. Again.’

Abbie Grundy for BroadwayWorld called it ‘a powerful and punchy production’.

Mark Lawson for The Guardian decided, ‘Rupert Goold’s staging (with Elin Schofield credited as revival director) is slicker and swifter than ever and movement directors Ellen Kane and Hannes Langolf – in sequences re-creating matches, penalty shootouts and changing room dance-offs – extraordinarily put the ball into ballet.’

LondonTheatre’s Aliya Al-Hassan found ‘You do not have to know very much about football to be caught up in the whirlwind of emotion in the production, from the delirious joy of a win, to the hope and expectation weighing on such young shoulders, and the disturbing racism inflicted on Black players.’

‘Gwilym Lee makes a fantastic Southgate: he looks and sounds eerily like the manager, and captures that perplexed, rabbit-in-headlights demeanour, the ticks of discomfort with the limelight, as well as the thoughtful, articulate sincerity’, opined Demetrios Matheou at TheArtsDesk.

The Telegraph’s Dominic Cavendish noted, ‘The way Graham marshals information is a wonder – here a stat, there a gag; the way Goold co-ordinates his (mainly recast) players a wonder too, combining fancy footwork (with mimed footballs), laddish horseplay and telltale unease as these barely-men are asked to open up, under the aegis of Liz White’s shrewd psychologist Pippa Grange.’

Chris Omaweng for LondonTheatre1 pointed out ‘It’s a crowd-pleaser, whilst acknowledging the individual and collective pains, not only of the players but of their supporters. In the end, the dramatic tension is there, and so is the enthusiasm and dedication of those committed to the beautiful game.’

Critics’ average rating 4.0 ★

Value rating 50 (Value rating is the Average Critic Rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Dear England is at The National Theatre until 24 May 2025. Buy tickets from the theatre here. Dear England will perform at The Lowry in Salford 29 May – 29 June 2025, then on a national tour in the autumn.

If you’ve seen the revised version of Dear England at the The National Theatre or elsewhere, please add your review and rating below