9/5/2008

Entertainment

Some things just aren’t cricket...

Richard Bean’s The English Game is at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre until May 17

CRICKET-LOVING theatregoers will be especially excited by a new play making its debut in Guildford this month.

The English Game, written by nationally acclaimed playwright Richard Bean and directed by Sean Holmes, is performing at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre until Saturday, May 17.

Bean’s star has been gradually rising for the past 15 years. After completing a degree in psychology at Loughborough University, he worked in personnel until his mid-30s when he discovered that he had a knack for stand-up comedy and writing sketches.

His works to date include Smack Family Robinson, about a family of drug dealers in Whitley Bay, and Toast, which Bean wrote on the back of his experience working at a bakery as a student.

The 51-year-old described how he conceived the idea The English Game: “I played cricket all my life, I guess for about 35 years. As a Yorkshireman I’d say there was probably a cricket bat at my christening.

“It’s ruined my body, wrecked my bones and my cartilage. At 50 I’m a walking wounded.

"This play is my revenge on the game. With all the talk about obesity and trying to get kids to go out and do sport I’m saying ‘No, stay on the sofa, eat pies and drink beer, you’ll be a lot healthier'.

“The play is in three acts, and you don’t actually see any of the game, but you do see the guys sitting on the green talking about the game.

“It is not that bucolic view of the English village, with cricket on the green and the hairy barber and the local vicar, it’s quite the opposite.

"The game takes place in a London park where the pavilion has been destroyed by youths who were out of their head on skunk. It’s more dystopian.”

To book tickets for The English Game, call the box office on 01483 440000 or visit www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk.

First printed in: Surrey Advertiser Online