Red Pitch
Cast: 3m (playing age 16)
Staging: Single exterior location (urban football pitch)
Amateur rights performance fee: £85 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)
21 Dec 2023Size: 198mm x 129mm
21 Dec 2023
Red Pitch
Paperback
£10.99£8.79
Ebook
£10.99£8.79
@sohoplace, West End
From Fri 15 Mar 2024 to Sat 4 May 2024
- Best New Play, OffWestEnd Awards - 2023
- Best Writer, Stage Debut Awards - 2022
- George Devine Award - 2022
- Most Promising Playwright, Critics' Circle Theatre Awards - 2023
- Most Promising Playwright, Evening Standard Theatre Awards - 2022
Red Pitch. South London. Three lifelong friends Omz, Bilal and Joey are playing football. Like they always have. Living out dreams of football stardom. Beyond their football pitch, local shops are closing, old flats are being demolished as new flats shoot up, some residents struggle to stay while others rush to leave.
A coming-of-age story about what it means to belong somewhere, Tyrell Williams' fast-paced and sharp-edged play tells a powerful story about gentrification, regeneration and the impact of this relentless change on London's communities.
Red Pitch received an ecstatic critical and audience response when it was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in February 2022, directed by Associate Artistic Director Daniel Bailey. The production was revived at the Bush in September 2023, with this definitive version of the text.
For Red Pitch, Tyrell Williams won the Evening Standard Theatre Award and the Critics' Circle Theatre Award both for Most Promising Playwright, The Stage Debut Award for Best Writer, the George Devine Award, as well as the Off West End Award for Best New Play.
An earlier version of the play was presented in June 2019, as part of the Untold Season at Ovalhouse, London.
Also available: a later edition of the play, published alongside the West End production in 2024.
'The way they're changing endz is nuts.'
'Fierce, affectionate and effortlessly funny'
Guardian'90 minutes of end-to-end stuff... the plot is pacy and exciting. The language is rich and vivid. It's also very funny... It's still rare to see a play about young, black, working-class youths on our stages: rarer still to see one in which they are celebrated like this'
Evening Standard'Intelligent, nuanced – an unbelievable debut... phenomenal... true mastery of craft. It's a next-level coming-of-age story'
The Stage'Sharp, funny and deeply poignant... feels wholly authentic... an eloquent love letter to our increasingly threatened public spaces... Tyrell Williams is a rising talent of the first rank. Theatre needs voices like his'
Whatsonstage'A triumphant take on flux and football in a fast-changing south London neighbourhood'
Independent'An absolute cracker... Williams takes the simplest of situations and uses it to paint a brilliant but bleak picture of the trials of growing up in south London... Huge themes bubble through its smart, overlapping dialogue... what is so wonderful about Red Pitch is that the teenagers are written so richly that they don't represent a type or an aspiration. The plot is tight, but never schematic. Their reality makes their plight all the more moving... a play that is set to become a classic'
WhatsOnStage (2023)'Beautifully crafted... it manages to feel hugely meaningful while relatively little happens... it's hard not to imagine that for Williams, the theatrical Premier League beckons after this debut that's both zeitgeisty and timelessly humane'
Time Out'Exceptional... masterful... a remarkably nuanced play that, through a loveable everyday story, wholly captures what it is to be a 16-year-old, football-mad teen... a must-see'
Culture Whisper'Electrifying... fuelled by adrenaline... the characters feel authentic and real... great entertainment built on the strong foundations of specific issue-led theatre... a beautiful, thought-provoking tapestry of topical themes'
Broadway WorldCast: 3m (playing age 16)
Staging:Single exterior location (urban football pitch)
Amateur rights performance fee: £85 per performance (plus VAT where applicable)
21 Dec 2023Size: 198mm x 129mm
21 Dec 2023
