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I Left My Heart in Roker Park...
(And Extra Time at the Stadium of Light)
By Tom Kelly
Customs House, South Shields
Review by Peter Lathan (2004)
Football isn't a matter of life and death. It's much
more important than that.
We all laugh at this rather crass comment from some football pundit
whose name, quite honestly, I don't remember, but for some it is true.
It is what gives their life meaning. Such are the die-hard fans, those
who associate the important events in their lives by the fortunes of
their team, and such a one is Kevin, the dedicated - indeed obsessive
- Sunderland supporter in Tom Kelly's one-man play.
(For those who are not football fans, we should explain that the
Roker Park of the title was Sunderland's ground until the mid-nineties,
when the team moved to their new ground, the Stadium of Light. And for
our American readers, we should emphaise that we are talking here of
soccer, not the American variety of football, with which it has little
in common.)
Kevin talks to us about his life, beginning with the big moment of
his tenth year when, in 1958, his father took him to his first football
match at Roker Park, and ending at the present day. On the way he experiences
marriage, an inability to have children, divorce, remarriage, the death
of his second wife, and his surrogate parenthood with the daughter of
his second wife. With this story of an ordinary life are interweaved
the fortunes of Sunderland football club, including the great moment
when the team won the FA Cup in 1973, one of the highlights of his life.
This kind of thing is writer Tom Kelly's trademark, the closely and
sympathetically observed minutiae of the everyday lives of ordinary
people, presented with humour and always verging on, but never quite
crossing over into, sentimentality. There are no big themes, no attempts
to illuminate great truths, simply a gentle and almost loving portrait
of an ordinary guy leading an ordinary life, a life given meaning by
his relationships and his unstinting but far from blind love of "the
team".
A play such as this stands or falls by the quality of the performance
and here Kelly is well served by David Whitaker, one of the region's
most experienced actors, who is totally believable as Kevin, inspiring
both laughter and sympathy. Dressed in tracksuit bottoms and a Sunderland
shirt, he was the man who can be seen every Saturday during the
season, making his pilgrimage to "the match". And, indeed,
both Kelly as writer and Whitaker as actor were well served by director
Chris Elphinstone whose light but firm touch kept the piece moving at
just the right pace.
The first night audience clearly loved the performance and the play,
rising to their feet to give a standing ovation, something which NE
audiences are not given to in normal circumatances. Of course there
was more than a sprinking of Sunderland shirts in the audience, too,
and a considerable number were not regular theatregoers but Sunderland
fans there to see something about their beloved team. And don't think
that the word "beloved" is out of place here: one of the team's
fan magazines is called A Love Supreme!
It's not great drama but it's good theatre, with an immediate appeal
both to football fans and to those theatregoers who (like this reviewer!)
find football less than interesting but appreciate a well-observed and
well-crafted play, performed with skill and sensitivity.
An excellent start to the Customs House's annual February Drama Festival,
setting a high standard for the other plays in the coming weeks to follow.
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