Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams - ★★★★★

Walking into the Bush theatre, we’re transported to a 5-a-side football pitch. Red barriers, white lines and flood lights.

We see three young Black men, Omz, Bilal and Joey playing around on the pitch as the audience take their seats - facing one another as if we were spectators at a game. As the audience continue to file in, our entry is accompanied by a curated soundtrack of grime and UK rap, setting the scene, and inviting us into their world before the show begins.

Red Pitch follow’s Omz, Bilal and Joey, as their local football pitch in their South London Estate, forms the basis of brotherhood, dreams and endless laughter. A welcome coming of age story, we watch them prepare for QPR trials, play pounds and question whether Omz really has “girls for days”.

All of this takes place against the backdrop of gentrification, regeneration and the displacement [Man’s moving to Kent tomorrow, where the bloodcart is Kent?”] that closely follows. As Morley’s is replaced, and estates are torn down we see the cost of this change - communities lost and support systems severed. The boys disagree about the value of the regeneration, Joey recognises that their estate need to be ‘fixed’, but perhaps more wisely understands that in turn “they’re gonna take all the sick spots away. All the people too”. Omz however can’t understand his complaints towards “patterning endz”, especially as “nobody put P back in the endz [and] nobody took care of it”.

Tyrell Williams script is tender, nuanced and above all authentic. As we watch the boys train, bicker and dream we could’ve been watching our brothers, cousins or nephews and our heart warmed as we saw such a familiar dynamic.

It was a joy to see the subtleties in Tyrell’s script understood and appreciated by the audience. Small but intentional cultural references that would go unnoticed by a less diverse audience landed perfectly in the Bush audience - eliciting communal laughter and waves of nostalgia. 

Together, Tyrell Williams & Daniel Bailey have created something very special. Full of joy, hope and a beautiful brotherhood, this show really does have our heart.

Red Pitch is showing at The Bush Theatre until 26 March.

Photo Credit: Craig Fuller, Isha Shah (rehearsal images)