Football, our national obsession, is finding its way on to the stage. What is intriguing is the way the game is being used as a means of examining big issues. After The Beautiful Game, which dealt with Northern Ireland, and Sing Yer Heart Out for the Lads, which explored racism, we have Chris Chibnall's highly entertaining one-man play, which tackles homophobia.
It takes time, however, for the theme to emerge. In the first half, Chibnall deals with the game's nitty-gritty as George, manager of Northbridge (languishing in League Two) charts the club's struggles to stay alive. This provides an excellent account of the non-glamorous side of soccer, where managers have to cope with an erratic 15-strong squad, a geriatric groundsman and a moody striker described as "Malcolm X meets Ian Rush". But George's hopes of changing fortunes when Northbridge draw Liverpool at home in the FA Cup are dashed when his new 17-year-old signing gives him a passionately fervent kiss.
This leads Chibnall into an exploration of the aggressive homophobia of professional football. But, while endorsing his plea for tolerance, I don't find all the details convincing. Why would a photographer be around in the early hours to snap an unexpected kiss between the closeted manager and a confused teenager?
Where Chibnall really scores is in the clash between George's vision of football as a socialist's game and his chairman's belief in it as big business. This leads to hilarious episodes, such as a marketing wallah telling George which phrases to avoid in the pre-match TV interview.
This is very much a play of two halves, but Deka Walmsley holds it together, in Gareth Machin's production, with a superb performance as George. He brings out not just the daily pressures on a struggling manager but the wounded dignity of a man who finds himself hounded by the tabloids and spurned by his colleagues when his sexuality is exposed. Precisely because it raises the taboo subject of professional soccer's anti-gay ethos, I suspect Chibnall's play will have a deservedly long life.
· Until October 30. Box office: 020-7620 3494. Then at Theatre Royal, York, from November 3-27. Box office: 01904 623568.
