RED Ladder Theatre Company's more intimate re-staging of its modern-day Greek tragedy, The Damned United, plays Pocklington Arts Centre on Thursday night.
First staged in 2016 in a sold-out five-week run at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the theatrical re-telling of David Peace's story of Brian Clough's disastrous 44 days as manager of League champions Leeds United is on its debut tour in a stripped-back production.
Bound for a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe in August in a co-production between Leeds company Red Ladder and the Unity Theatre, Liverpool, the play has been re-worked by artistic director Rod Dixon and playwright Anders Lustgarten.
Actors Luke Dickson, David Chafer and Jamie Smelt will bring Thursday's audience close up to the sweat, fury and power struggles from pitch-side and inside the flawed mind of "Old Big 'Ed" in Peace’s turbulent tale of English football's enfant terrible, Brian Clough.
Separated from right-hand man Peter Taylor, Clough sets out on a solo mission in 1974 to win the European Cup with his new team, Leeds United: the team he has openly despised for years, the team he hates and that hates him: Don Revie’s "Dirty Leeds".
The Damned United digs deep and dark inside the tortured soul of a firebrand genius slamming up against his limits, bringing to life the beauty and brutality of football, the working man’s ballet.
Mea culpa? Luke Dickson's Brian Clough in Red Ladder Theatre Company's The Damned United. Picture: Malcijphotography
The rights for The Damned United – or The Damned Utd as the book was called – were donated by Peace to Red Ladder for a nominal sum, as part of the Save The Red Ladder campaign in 2016 in a show of support for the radical theatre company. Now he warms to the arrival of the new touring show.
"For me, it was a wonderful, humbling and exciting experience to see the original production at the West Yorkshire Playhouse last year. Football itself, at every level, is drama, theatre and spectacle played out before a living, breathing and usually very partisan audience; this is what Anders, Rod and everybody involved brought to the story, which neither the book nor the film could do.
"I feel very honoured and excited again that Red Ladder are now taking a new production on the road and to such very different venues. I’ve no doubt that Red Ladder will prove once again that radical theatre can be a great and entertaining night out.”
In a commitment to touring and widening access to the arts, Red Ladder is taking this year's small-scale reworking to arts spaces and non-traditional spaces, as director Rod Dixon explains. "After the great success of our world premiere, we’re thrilled to be creating a new production of The Damned United. This ingenious story, with Brian Clough as its tragic anti-hero, lends itself brilliantly to a gritty and stripped-back staging.
"The Damned United has it all – passion, power struggles and tragedy – so it holds great appeal, not just with theatre fans, but football fans, first-time attendees and all those of us who have been gripped by David Peace’s novel.
"We’re looking forward to welcoming wider audiences to this work and getting back to our roots with a production we can take out on tour, including a major run at the Edinburgh Fringe, the flagship event in the arts calendar."
Tickets for Thursday's 7.30pm performance are on sale at £8 to £12 on 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk
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