Award-winning Dear England play to embark on 16-venue tour

Yahoo

18-02-2025

Dear England, the award-winning play about Gareth Southgate's time as the England football manager, will embark on a nationwide tour across England later this year.
Written by stage and screen writer James Graham, Dear England had a sell-out run at the National Theatre before it transferred to the West End in 2023, securing best new play at the Oliver Awards last year.
It will now take to the road for a 16-venue tour, kicking off in Plymouth on September 15, with stops in major cities including Newcastle, Liverpool and Birmingham, until the tour comes to a close on March 14 2026.
Playwright Graham told the PA news agency he had 'frequent sleepless nights' about whether a production about football would translate to stage, but feels it has connected with people as the story is 'so moving' and Southgate is 'such a compelling character'.
He said: 'I didn't grow up in a world where theatre was in my life as a kid. Once I found it in school, I just couldn't believe the magic and the wonder of it.
'And so I've always gone through my career with that populist mindset, just going 'What will connect with people who are non-traditional theatre goers and traditional theatre goers at the same time?'
'And obviously doing a play about the national football team felt like it had the potential to reach theatre audiences and non-theatre audiences as well, just because of the subject matter.
'So that was in its DNA, but we didn't know if it was going to work.'
He continued: 'Obviously I had frequent sleepless nights about whether or not putting football, putting penalties on stage was either going to be theatrical gold and real spectacle, or really cringe and really terrible.
'Thankfully, because I feel like the story is so moving, and Gareth Southgate is such a compelling character, that it seems to have really connected with people.'
Graham, whose TV writing credits include Sherwood, Brexit: The Uncivil War and Channel 4's Brian and Maggie, is 'really delighted' it will tour across the country as he feels it is a 'national play'.
He said: 'The England football team belongs to everybody nationwide, and to take it out the capital felt really, really important to me.'
Graham said returning to Nottingham's Theatre Royal to stage his own play decades after he first started seeing shows there is 'great'.
'Everybody equally deserves access to culture and arts across the country and it is a bit lopsided. It just is at the moment', he added.
'And the cultural climate we're in at the moment, touring is very, very expensive. It's not always feasible. Production costs have gone really, really high. Moving things around have gone really high.
'So for the National Theatre to commit to taking a show which has over 18 actors in it, and as a big set and it's a big play, I feel like that… commitment to the National Theatre being truly national is the right decision. And I'm very grateful that they picked my play to do it.'
Dear England will open at the Theatre Royal Plymouth and will then tour to Nottingham's Theatre Royal in September, before moving to The Marlowe in Canterbury and Sheffield Lyceum in October.
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Through November it will be at the Leeds Grand Theatre, Theatre Royal Newcastle and Chichester Festival Theatre and in January 2026, the show will tour to Mayflower Theatre in Southampton, Milton Keynes Theatre, and the New Theatre Oxford.
Across February it will travel to the Norwich Theatre Royal, New Victoria Theatre in Woking, The Alhambra Theatre in Bradford and the New Wimbledon Theatre in London, before finishing its run at the Liverpool Empire and Birmingham Hippodrome in March.
Ahead of the tour, the play will return to the National Theatre from March to May, followed by a four-week run at the Lowry in Salford from May to June, with SAS Rogue Heroes star Gwilym Lee portraying Southgate.
Dear England is a fictionalised account of the struggles and successes of England's football teams, based on extensive research and interviews.
The play had its world premiere on June 20 2023 in the Olivier theatre, and following a sold-out run it transferred to the Prince Edward Theatre in London's West End.
It received nine Olivier Award nominations last year and won best new play and best actor in a supporting role for Will Close for his turn as Harry Kane.
Last year it was announced the play would be adapted into a four-part BBC TV drama, with Joseph Fiennes reprising his starring role as Southgate.
Southgate ended an eight-year stint as the national team boss in the wake of the Euro 2024 final defeat to Spain and the play has been updated to reflect his final chapter as England manager.
Casting for the tour, which is a co-production between National Theatre Productions and JAS Theatricals, is still be announced.