Through It All Together is a deeply personal story for writer Chris O'Connor, which weaves together the story of a family living with dementia and that of the rollercoaster ride of supporting Leeds United in the late 2010s. Both of these strands are packed with emotion, and anyone who has cared for a family member or seen a loved one losing their memories and sense of self will find it hard not to shed a tear on at least a couple of occasions.
Both stories, too, have known endings, and so come freighted with dramatic ironies. In one, the inevitability of the direction of travel following a dementia diagnosis brings an underlying sadness. The other strand brings knowing laughs and bitter ironies for Leeds fans, such as when the season looks as though it's heading for glory, only for the team to be tripped up by lowly Wigan Athletic.
The play centres on a close-knit family: dad Howard (Reece Dinsdale), mum Sue (Shobna Gulati) and their adult daughter Hazel (Natalie Davies). The former are lifelong Leeds fans, but Hazel has not inherited the gene and can't see what the fuss is about.
Amanda Stoodley's set is dominated by the domestic location, with a sofa, sideboard, kitchen and a wall of family photos. These are adorned with colourful Post-its, notes to self for Howard, who, as the play begins, has already received a dementia diagnosis and says that when the time is right, he wants to move into a home. Movingly, believably, the last thing he wants is 'to be a burden'.
These roles are played with empathy and plausibility. They're offset by a more comedic collection of incidental characters played by talented multirolers Dean Smith and Everal A Walsh. The variety and skill both bring to their gallery of cameos is such that I had to remind myself at times that there were only five actors in the cast. They memorably portray a duo of would-be podcasters narrowcasting to a growing handful of fans—and it's a nice touch that, as their fame rises to match Leeds's fortunes, the pair clearly manage to invest in a second microphone, funded by voicing ads in a convincing spoof of the ways products are flogged on such platforms.
Also represented are the Leeds management, including the (in Smith's uproarious interpretation) flamboyant Spaniard Victor Orta—the man responsible for bringing Marcelo Bielsa in to manage the team in 2018.
Your reaction to that latter name will likely say a lot about how much you'd take from this show. O'Connor's script does a decent job of glossing the man's central importance to the people of Leeds—as does Stoodley's backdrop of a sanctified, stained-glass Bielsa. But the target audience for the show is really those who can chuckle wryly at the mention of 'Spygate' or get a wave of nostalgia for the heyday of Luke Ayling (or indeed, further back, Norman 'Bites Yer Legs' Hunter).
This is evidenced by the use, at several key moments, of football chants and songs such as "Marching on Together"—from which the play takes its title. The moment where we first glimpse characters on a trip to Elland Road is really effective. Lighting and sound design both open up, with Annie May Fletcher's sound really capturing the feeling of being deep in a stadium full of fans singing full-throatedly, an effect only amplified by the audience members who joined in with the song's refrain: "Leeds! Leeds! Leeds!"
Gitika Buttoo directs sympathetically, and care has been put into ensuring that the production reflects authentic experiences of dementia. It shies away from big dramatic moments or too much tension, aiming instead to sit in the shared emotions and experiences both of living with dementia and of the kind of shared city-wide experience that can only come from following a local team's ups and downs. It doesn't so much resolve as come to a close at a logical moment.
All this adds up to a touching, gently humorous, cosy family drama which, while not challenging or groundbreaking, gives vent to feelings not always shared in the open, and topics not often publicly discussed.