The Stage

And Did Those Feet

Published Monday 15 March 2010 at 10:25 by Andrew Liddle

In 1923, social and economic conditions in this country were very bad and did nothing to lift the gloom hanging over from the Great War, not long ended.

But in football-mad Bolton, a smallish cotton town with its dark Satanic mills working only part-time, at least they had the magic of the Cup to brighten their spirits.

This, indeed, was the famous White Horse match of football folkore, at the newly-built Wembley Stadium, where a lone mounted copper kept 60,000 extra fans who had somehow managed to crash the turnstiles from spilling onto the pitch.

This sad, funny, deeply moving play charts the team’s Cup progress, round by round, as seen through the eyes of a handful of people.

There’s Bob, played by the incomparable Martin Barrass, clearly a born Wanderer, trekking across England’s green and pleasant land to every away match, observing and opining each step of the way.

Everyone has an opiate. Hilda (Susan Twist) and Alf (Huw Higginson) are visited by the ghost of their son Billy (Chris Finch), killed on the Somme. For Martha, played by the splendid Naomi Radcliffe, it’s religion.

Her husband-to-be Ted (Mark Letheren) somehow salves his social conscience by keeping his job when all about are losing theirs. Curtis Cole does a nice turn as his communistic brother Jim, red flag in one hand, football rosette in the other.

Mark Babych’s revival of Bolton’s very own play, with universal themes, is an utter joy to behold.

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