Pulling a winner out of your Ar..
ADELAIDE FRINGE REVIEWS
DRAMA
Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Ar** For England
At Holden Street Theatres until March 23, 2025
The UK continues to uncover intensely physical theatre performers who know how to command a stage as though their lives depend upon it.
This time it is a young London actor, Alex Hill, who has pulled a winner out of his arse and milked it for all it’s worth in the UK and now Australia.
He is here care of the Holden Street Theatres Edinburgh Fringe Award for 2024, an award that helps tour shows from Edinburgh Fringe to Adelaide.
The scene is set when the footy (read soccer) hoodlum and coked up lager lad Billy pulls his eponymous stunt at the Euro 2020 at Wembley Stadium.
The match is a high point in English nationalist swagger. Here in the theatre the set is a wall of Cross of St George flags.
Billy sets out to tell us how he reached this apex in his career, like any soccer player, starting his fandom at Brentford and hitting the highs at the 2020 grandfinal between the UK and Italy.
He captures the all-encompassing nature of fandom – of any sport. His best mate Adam and he are lads kicking a ball, youths hanging out for every Saturday afternoon game, before being inducted into a gang determined to die on the cross of London club Brentford in post-match rumbles.
He both literally and metaphorically captures the drama and theatricality of football in contrast to his humdrum weekly wage existence.
In the grandstands are the songs and chants of football fans. But when he is sent to experience his first theatre – Les Miserables with his first girlfriend Daisy – there is a remarkable scene of recognition, well worth the price of a ticket to this show.
Alex Hill manages a rising inflection of theatrical energy right to a crisis, pulling the audience all the way with him.