THE World Cup is under way in Russia and back home Leeds children's theatre company Tutti Frutti and York Theatre Royal are celebrating the beautiful game in Evan Placey's new play Keepy Uppy.

Directed by artistic director Wendy Harris, Tutti Frutti's touring premiere will be in York from Wednesday to Saturday with its story of ten-year-old Joey, who loves playing football, watching football, talking about football. Football, football, and more football, and all because his mum is a footie fanatic too.

Fantasy footballer Joey (played by former Blackpool trialist Danny Childs) can turn anywhere into a make-believe pitch, score goals in his breakfast cereal and do imaginary match commentaries on his way to school.

Mum (Eden Dominique) stands on the sidelines cheering him on, giving him top training tips and teaching him new tricks, and today nothing will stand in their way as the big day has arrived; the high point of the season, the cup final: the chance for Joey to score the winning goal in a play written in rhyme and full of fabulous footie moves, flicks and sidesteps, underscored by Dominic Sales's music played live by Vittorio Angelone.

Canadian-British playwright Evan Placey is collaborating with Tutti Frutti for a second time after writing WiLD,  a play that explored the life of a boy living with ADHD. Now comes Keepy Uppy. "This time the brief was for Evan to create something with very few words because I wanted to concentrate on the physicality of the play," says Wendy. "The process involved a lot of editing to make it less wordy, favouring the physicality, and making sure that the language is punchy, to go with lots of movement and imagery in the show.

"Rehearsals were very playful as it's difficult to re-create a football match and the story goes around the world too, and we had to devise a way of doing that. So the movement, created by Joêl Daniel, is a nice marriage of footballing influences, where he's found a movement language that captures the strategies of football."

York Press:

Table football: Danny Childs' Joey in dreamland in Keepy Uppy 

Joey is a dreamer: a gift for the creativity of Tutti Frutti's production team and cast. "The play starts with him dreaming of scoring the winner in a cup final, and because he goes on this flight of fancy, that's great for us because it makes the play so imaginative," says Wendy. "Everything is made out of the language of football: football nets; a football plastic pitch; water bottles; there's even one scene where the breakfast table turns into a football match."

Childs, with his combination of acting, dance and football skills, and Dominique, in the mother role, are joined on stage by Vittorio Angelone and his unusual musical instrument, a xylo-synth. "It's basically an electronic xylophone, made specially for this show, which Vittorio plays like a percussive instrument that can make any sound," says Wendy.

Kate Bunce, who designed the Tutti Frutti sets for WiLD, Snow Child and Underneath A Magical Moon, has created a "non-literal world" for Keepy Uppy. "It's built around the language of strategy, using chalk and a tactics board as the main visual signature for the piece," says Wendy.

She chose that Keepy Uppy title, incidentally, before inviting Placey to write the script. "I'm the title queen of Tutti Frutti!" she says. "I contacted Evan to say: 'Do you want to write a play about football? I'm thinking of calling it Keepy Uppy."

Move over the World Cup, here is Joey's fantasy football drama, safe from a world where England are forever losing on penalties.

Tutti Frutti in Keepy Uppy, York Theatre Royal Studio, 11am and 1.30pm on June 20, 21 and 23; 1.30pm and 6pm on June 22. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. Suitable for children aged three to seven and their families.