Red Pitch Tickets

By: Tyrell Williams
Director: Daniel Bailey
Cast list: Francis Lovehall, Emeka Sesay, Kedar Williams-Stirling

Audiences first fell in love with Red Pitch two years ago, and it’s already been brought back by popular demand: the Bush Theatre held an encore run of the show in 2023. Now, it gets promoted to the West End.

This latest production is another exciting new writing debut for new London venue @sohoplace, which has already championed the likes of musical The Little Big Things and a stage version of Brokeback Mountain.

Red Pitch also follows another football-themed play into the West End – and, just like James Graham’s winner Dear England, you don’t have to know the offside rule to have a great night out. Both pieces are much more about people and about our country more generally than about slide tackles or bending it like Beckham.

Red Pitch in particular centres on these three 16-year-olds: Bilal, whose dad nearly made it as a pro footballer, and so has pressure to carry on that legacy; Omz, who splits his time with looking after his younger brother and his grandad; and Joey, the goalie, who has a back-up plan in the form of a business course.

The brilliant original team is back too. Castmates Kedar Williams-Stirling, Emeka Sesay and Francis Lovehall are all reprising their roles in the @sohoplay run – and they’ll doubtless be hitting the back of the net again.

What to watch for

● Red Pitch is an exciting piece of new British writing – and it’s already had incredible recognition with an Olivier Award nomination, plus wins in The Stage Debut Awards, the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards, the Evening Standard Theatre Awards, the Off West End Awards and more. ● You’ll recognise its talented cast from other projects too. Kedar Williams-Stirling played another aspiring athlete, swimmer Jackson Marchetti, in Netflix’s Sex Education, and both he and Francis Lovehall appeared in the acclaimed Small Axe series, while Emeka Sesay was in Amazon Prime Video’s adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s The Power. ● The play might tackle all sorts of subjects beyond football, but the setting is definitely a pitch, and an excitingly immersive one at that thanks to Amelia Jane Hankin’s design. Plus the cast are nimble movers! If you’ve seen Dear England, it’s a really interesting comparison in how to stage a sport as drama. ● The choice of @sohoplace makes sense when you also bear in mind that Daniel Bailey’s production has plenty of fun with breaking the fourth wall: the players acknowledge the audience occasionally by, for example, reaching out to shake hands. That should brilliantly suit this in-the-round venue, where the audience is part of the action.