Barracking for the Umpire
Black Swan State Theatre Company
Subiaco Arts Centre
If you love footy, you’re going to love this play.
If footy bores you, or worse, stay away.
The first five minutes of Andrea Gibbs’s first play, Barracking for the Umpire, are explosive.
It is funny. Really laugh-out- loud funny, with a sudden unexpected dramatic event at the end of the scene.
And the play continues in that vein. Full of laughs, while tackling some of the big problems, some of the unspoken issues, in what fans believe is our beautiful game.
The play is fast and rich with humour, love, pathos, drama and even some sadness and regret.
Women’s footy; the long-term often devastating effects of repeated knocks to the head during games; and the issue of gay footballers. All these are raised and examined and laid bare.
I wish Andrea Gibbs had been in the theatre the night I saw it. I would have given her a standing ovation. Her brilliant words might have made it easy for the actors to shine. But I believe this cast would have sparkled anyway.
Yes, this is a huge thumbs-up for writer, director, actors and everybody from Black Swan who was involved. And it’s rare that I feel that way.
Andrea’s father was a legendary footballer in Donnybrook, who had so many head injuries his doctor advised him to give up playing. So he became an umpire. “My mum was the only person at the footy ground who was barracking for the umpire,” she said.
So there’s the mystery of the name of the play.
I hope Black Swan takes this on tour because rural towns in WA would eat it.
Best scene? Best actor? Honestly can’t say. Brilliant performances throughout. There wasn’t a slow patch or a patchy performance.
If you can possibly get there before the season ends on Sunday night, DO!
CAST Michael Abercromby, Pippa Grandison, Joel Jackson, Steve Le Marquand, Ebony McGuire, Jo Morris, Ian Wilkes
DIRECTOR Clare Watson, SET & COSTUME DESIGNER Sara Chirichilli, COMPOSER/SOUND DESIGNER Joe Paradise Lui, LIGHTING DESIGNER Lucy Birkinshaw, DRAMATURG Polly Low, STAGE MANAGER Riley Billyeald, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER Madeleine Young
Photographs: Actor Ian Wilkes by Frances Andrijich
Get in quick! Barracking for the Umpire runs until Sunday, 23 October, at the Subiaco Arts Centre.
