Boundaries and Botany
In the tiny Jerwood theatre in the loft of the Royal Court, and at an appropriate 90 minutes long, this was an entertaining evening spent with 16th century football. Set in the reign of Edward VI we have Percy and Rowan, joined by a stranger as they are marking the outer boundary of the annual football match between villages, and it's probably going to go on for hours if not days. They are far away from the action, barely pawns in the game but still heavily invested. I had to think a bit to get my head in the right bit of history but of course this was the middle of the religious purges after the death of Henry VIII where to be on the wrong side or in the wrong group could mean being subjected to attack or even death. The play takes all of the metaphors you have probably ever heard of applied to football and squeezes them in together, looking at the cultural, religious, territorial. gender divides, and pretty much every boundary you can think of. The battle...