FringeReview Scotland 2025
The Red Lion
Theatre 118, Glasgow
Venue: A brave attempt to deliver a modern theatrical classic.
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
The Red Lion tells the tale of a prospective professional footballer in the non-league, semi- pro set up. Better than his contemporaries, he is soon seen as a cash cow who can save the club, get the money for new players to get promoted and line the pockets of the manager. With a kitman, a former star player for the club, attempting to protect his new protégé, more than his club, it leads to disaster for all three, as secrets between them get exposed and any deal for the future is scuppered all because of a dodgy knee.
Review
Patrick Marber’s script is deft in its ability to bring to the stage non-league football: sport onstage has never been entirely successful. The genius of Marber’s script is dealing with the corruption within football, of the side hustles and brown paper envelopes. Targeting the hinterlands of football means that there is little need to deal with the minutiae of the well known and avoids the trappings of the famous. Here were in the belly, literally, of the beast of football and money.
Paper Hat Theatre, hampered by a late substitute and unable to provide their full 4-4-2, do a handsome job of bringing the script to stage.
Cast illness prevented the original Jimmy Kidd, Michael H. Steel from appearing so in came Derek Banner. As a trio they coped with the last-minute change but some of the nuance and tightness was lost. Euan Galbraith as Johnny Yates delivers the kitman, who is given such a lowly role by the club, to help him out, with sensitivity to his ego. As Jordan, the eager prospect, Jamie Cunningham, gives him credibility – the wide-eyed hope, tinged with the fear of being found out. At its core, the dialogue is driven by Jimmy Kidd, so the loss of the actor was felt, though Derek Banner provides a man possessed of ego, bluff and plenty of bluster. Even with the script in his hand, his enthusiastic Jimmy was always pushing and looking for his next deal. But when the script was out of his hand, he caught the pathos and the agony of the man.
Michael Panikkou directs tightly within the confines of a set reminiscent of the dressing room of many a club that barely remembers better days. Where it fell down a little was in ironing and massage. If you’re going to iron a top, iron the whole top don’t just iron the bit around the collars and if that is causes you a problem iron less and have more hung up. And if you are going to massage, find a masseuse when picking up the kit from Thistle to show you the moves, or drop by a Beauty Therapy department at the local college to get the moves into your rhythm.
Overall, whilst sorry not to see the whole team in action, without substitutes, I have little doubt that Paper Hat on first viewing is a team that deserves a second chance.
