Theatre / Reviews
Review: Kick Off, The Wardrobe Theatre – ‘An outstanding play’
From promising writers Dulcie Johnson and Tildy Paisner, Kick Off is a lively, charming, noisy and searingly unflinching portrayal of the dynamics and dramas of a university women’s football team.
The play – the third from production company Cherish The Orange – finds a natural home at Bristol’s Wardrobe Theatre – fast becoming a centre of excellence for the city’s young theatremakers.
From the start, it is evidently not going to be some understated and angst-ridden tragedy. As one, the cast of 13 women pile onto the stage, setting up an equally rumbunctious audience for a performance that will resonate long after the final whistle is blown.
The cast is a mixture of current and former University of Bristol students and the unique camaraderie gained over three years of study and play is infectious. At times it feels less of a theatre production and more of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, as the girls banter, bitch, fall out, fall in again and play their hearts out on the pitch.
Not that we actually see any of the latter. The whole thing is set in a changing room, a haven for discussion over tactics, team captains, the pressures of the final year and, above all else, the challenges of friendships and relationships as the team’s time at uni nears its end and all the worries of the real world begin to manifest on the horizon.
To single out any one performer for praise would be grossly unfair. This is an ensemble performance of the highest quality and, like all great teams, each actor brings excellent characterisation, plus genuine warmth and individuality.
Is Kick Off a feelgood play? Yes, largely. It certainly has charm, verve and wit in spades. Yet that sparky vivacity is tempered by moments of doubt, tension and uncertainty, as the players spar with each other, and with themselves too, while they ponder a future without the glue of a team to hold them together.
A final scene on screen that mixes live action from England’s hugely successful women’s team and stills of the performers is the only slightly jarring note of the performance, which perhaps should have ended with a true back-of-the-net moment instead of a deflection off the crossbar.
However, that is nowhere near enough to detract from an outstanding play that deserves to run for many seasons ahead.
Kick Off is at The Wardrobe Theatre on February3-4 at 7.30pm. Visit www.thewardrobetheatre.com for tickets.
All photos: Cherish the Orange
Read next:
- Celebrating a decade of The Wardrobe Theatre in Old Market
- Review: Home Ground, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A vibrant and energising hour of pure theatre’
- Review: The Red Lion, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A delicately constructed web of views, motives, relationships and secrets
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