Fit and Proper People review, Soho Theatre

If you don't know much about football, the moves in Fit and Proper People will largely go over your head. By the interval this is how much we non-fans have gleaned: a) Zahra Ahmadi as lap dancer Lianne has had a Hollywood wax and is well fit, b) Katy Stephens is bloody good at switching from tough to vulnerable in the roll of a tear and is as impressive a cockney as she is a Shakespearean heroine, and c) The game is only beautiful when you can't see behind the scenes.

Transfer frieze

The pieces fit better after half time. That's partly because of the bonhomie created by the sale of hot pies and beer on the football pitch around which we're seated, the droll tannoy announcements, and the raffle to win a signed football or a fresh chicken for Sunday dinner. After this we're more inclined to roll with the punches, the barks and the exposed derrieres.

The central pitch is an inspired move and Steve Marmion's quirky directorial touches - snatches of song, dance, men in bikinis - maintain momentum when Georgia Fitch's script - a trawl through the baffling and complex people-fixing, people-using, life-destroying, lying, cheating, shouting, snorting, sexist, racist, morally licentious, tax evading, money laundering morass of depravity that is the game today - flags or blurs. A hardworking cast holds it together and it is a treat to be within inches of talents like Katy Stephens as disillusioned football agent, Casey Layton and terrific Steven Hartley as club manager, Anthony Whitechapel.

In conclusion: Of course the men who run the game aren't Fit and Proper People. You don't have to like football to know that, but if you do like football, you may pick up on some hidden subtleties in the story that escaped the rest of us.

References:
Soho Theatre, tickets and information
Lyn Gardner review in The Guardian