TAKE A MATE TONIGHT
If you have already bought your tickets then a copy of RI will allow you to buy an extra night at half price. You can see from the reviews that the play has already received that this is a show you will want to see more than once.
Get on it before they sell out, order by phone:
Contact Theatre Box Office 0161 274 0600 and take your Red Issue along when you collect your tickets.
The play is a one-man show charting the events that have shaped Manchester United's history from a fans' perspective. Based on Richard Kurt's books the play is a highly entertaining and dramatic romp worthy of its subject. Whilst its predominant appeal will be to United fans the Liverpool Daily Post review demonstrates it does have a wider appeal.
Football fanzines have been part of the match-going culture for fifteen years but this is the first time that they have been brought to the stage.
In a nutshell:
The play is a one-man show charting the events that have shaped Manchester United's history from a fans' perspective. Based on Richard Kurt's books the play is a highly entertaining and dramatic romp worthy of its subject. Whilst its predominant appeal will be to United fans the Liverpool Daily Post review demonstrates it does have a wider appeal.
Football fanzines have been part of the match-going culture for fifteen years but this is the first time that they have been brought to the stage.
In a nutshell:
Burt is a home and away Red who has landed himself a job as an official tour guide at OT, bored with the script he has been given by his boss he decides to give his tour party a proper insight into what it is like being a United fan.
Constantly barracked by his boss in the form of the disembodied voice of 'the beast' Burt goes on a ninety minute romp through United history; Cantona's signing from Leeds, Paddy Crerand's defence of Eric post Selhurst Park and the trip to Croydon magistrates court are dealt with brilliantly with a timely defence of Roy Keane thrown in for good measure.
The stealing of Billy Meredith and Sandy Turnbull from City; a Munich tribute which recalls all those who died and not just the players; the fall and rise of 'da godfadah Foiguson' and the introduction of 'Reservoir Dogs' in the shape of the Nevilles, Beckham, Butt, Scholes and Giggs is topped off with a clever one-man depiction of Barca '99 and the 'shagtastic marathon' in which George Best confirms his status as a 'lad's legend' by 'skin-surfing' his way to a magnificent seven conquests in one 24-hour period.
If you like your football free from the marketing man's gloss then don't miss this show.
A review from The Liverpool Daily Post.
A review from The Liverpool Daily Post.
'United! Chester Gateway
On the face of it, sending someone who is utterly clueless about the English national game to a theatre piece about football was, surely, a miscalculated risk.
To me, a striker is someone who downs his work tools, and a midfielder someone in the midst of harvesting a wheat field.
But Kieron Smith managed to bring a new perspective to my meagre understanding.
His lively, poignant, entertaining and thought-provoking profile of Manchester United from a fan's perspective would grab the attention of the most unlikely convert. .
This was a cleverly constructed, fast-paced one-man show and Smith kept the drama going with wiry action and comical impersonations. Only once did the pace flag when it risked turning into a chronological glossary.
But that didn't last for long and the pace rapidly picked up again.
United! Despatches from Old Trafford is based on the book by Richard Kurt and has been adapted by Kieron Smith and Richard Williams, who directed. It scored a great goal in the mind of a confirmed footballing cynic.'