Review: Dear England, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

Dear England opens with Gareth Southgate missing a semi-final penalty at the 1996 Euros, a miss that put England out of the tournament. Southgate the manager sorrowfully witnesses his younger self’s anguish. Football has power in England and the country’s mood was depressed at the loss.

Most of the cast here take on multiple roles, many of them real living people, sometimes switching between characters in seconds. They are all slick and polished. We see journalists mob successive failed managers, all portrayed briefly and with much humour as their individual traits are caricatured. Special mention to Ian Kirkby whose portrayal of Gary Lineker is extremely close to the real thing. It’s an amusing touch when he appears with a bag of Walker’s crisps at one point.

David Sturzaker hugely impresses as Southgate, his stance, voice and mannerisms all spot-on. As he introduces his team, they completely convince as footballers; there is never a point where they are actors playing footballers. The England squad IS on that stage. They are all excellent, but Oscar Gough (Harry Kane), Connor Hawker (Harry Maguire), Jack Maddison (Jordan Pickford) and Ashley Byam (Raheem Stirling) are notable in capturing the essence of their roles.

Psychologist Pippa Grange (a solid performance from Samantha Womack) identifies the problem is fear of failure, a collective trauma which results in multiple lost penalty shoot-outs. Southgate removes the pressure of needing to win each tournament by turning their journey into a story which will end with the Qatar World Cup in six years’ time.

At each team meeting the players bring on a chair, walk to their spot, place the chair and sit on it, all in unison. As the players gel into a team their chair synchronicity symbolically improves. The set and staging are superb. A huge illuminated ring is suspended above the stage which provides match results, headlines and graffiti. Excellent graphics set the scene for Wembley and tournament locations.

At the end of Act One, a full penalty shoot-out is staged, and it is brilliant. The players kick an invisible ball into the auditorium, the sound effect for each kick, the tense, suspenseful background hum, the concentration and physicality of the players are perfect. Maddison as England goalkeeper Pickford, his back to the audience as he faces each penalty, is exceptional. This shoot-out is just as nerve-wracking as the real thing. When they win, the celebrations are joyous and genuine.

A tournament in England brings more pressure to win. The players each learn their number in the history of England players to feel part of that legacy. When Maguire proudly says he’s from Mosborough, Sheffield there’s a huge cheer from this audience. As Southgate tries to end the story earlier than Qatar, he and Grange part company and the dream of the tournament win fails, though they came agonisingly close. This feels a little simplistic as it implies that she was right all along and her exit is where it all went wrong.

The progress made paves the way for the women’s team to do what the men couldn’t and win the Euros. A lioness explains that the men had to fight high expectations which weren’t there for the women, highlighting a key theme of the piece.

Dear England captures the joy of winning, the agony of losing and the resultant mood in the country perfectly. Even someone who isn’t a football fan will find it engrossing. When Sweet Caroline plays for the jubilant ending it’s hard not to agree it is ‘so good, so good, so good!’

Written by James Graham
Directed by Rupert Goold
Set design by Es Devlin
Costume design by Evie Gurney
Movement design by Ellen Kane & Hannes Langolf
Lighting design by Jon Clark
Video design by Ash J Woodford
Sound design by Dan Balfour & Tom Gibbons
Additional music by Max Perrymeat

Dear England plays in Sheffield until Saturday 25 October and tours the UK until 14 March 2026