Leicester’s Curve is a theatre that is consistently being mentioned nowadays and rightly so due to their incredible Made at Curve productions. With a number of these shows touring and even landing in London’s glittering West End, you never know when you’re going to be seeing the next smash hit show. This summer season, Curve’s community production ‘Fantastic Foxes’ documents the historic and remarkable rise of Leicester City Football Club.
Written by Rob Ward and directed by Kitty Benford, the piece focuses on a secondary school teacher who attempts to teach her students the importance of community within society, with the football club at the heart of her lessons. Whilst Leicester City Football Club isn’t necessarily on any GCSE syllabus, the students soon realise the importance of the community around them as they each have a story related to the football club in one way or another.
Fantastic Foxes documents the almost unbelievable story of the football club from its creation in 1884 where they were known as ‘Leicester Fosse’, all the way to the fairytale ending of winning the Premier League in 2016. At the heart of the story are the characters from within the footballing community. From the creation of the club inside a garden shed in 1914 and the trenches of World War One, we are enlightened on the history of the club. In the modern era we journey to pubs, classrooms and care homes meeting the passionate fan base behind the foxes. Whilst the set design (Lauren Connolly) has your typical football elements of a pitch, the interior and exterior of a football ground and so on, there is so much personality that really shines through. It’s clear to see that Leicester’s wonderful street art is reflected in the design with the striking neon graffiti (Nick Shove) adorned across the set.
As mentioned, with a vast variety of different settings within the piece spanning such a huge time scale, the set transforms using its versatile set pieces with several surprises throughout, even if some scenes do outstay their welcome slightly. Impressively, parts of the set have been repurposed from other productions housed at Leicester Curve, which is a further example of the impressive creation vision of the production team.
Ward’s ambitious piece is more than about Leicester City Football Club. Fantastic Foxes highlights social injustices throughout time, many of which are still as prevalent today, allowing audience members to relate to the many complex issues surrounding the characters. From characters feeling that ‘football is a white man’s game’ to characters who ‘can’t’ be racist as their favourite player is Riyad Mahrez who just happens to be from Algeria, there really is something that every audience member can take away after watching the piece.
Whilst these themes are obviously important and have been covered before, it was interesting to witness stories that are surprisingly common yet not as widely regarded with the same importance. Ward successfully shines a spotlight on homophobic abuse within the football fan community as well as in the ways in which it is simply dismissed by others. Regular chants such as ‘puff’ or ‘rent boy’ are heard bellowed from across the terraces with little to no regard of the impact of those words on those other individuals or families at the games. As a gay football fan myself, it was a joy to see a more positive representation of how clubs support their LGBT fans as Foxes Pride was set up and championed in the piece.
Within the community production comes a large cast of thirty seven members, each with their own personal, unique story and attachment to the football club. Each cast member played multiple roles throughout and exceeded my expectations with a few particular stand outs. Lee Gray as know it all student ‘Dee’, the double act of mother and daughter Daisy Mullen Thomson as Lauren and Fiona Gurney as Wendy, and Ted Orme as Darren, Young Frankie and Robbie Savage. Gray shone each time on stage, drawing the attention away from their cast members with nuances, facial expressions and body language even when not in the immediate focus. Thomson and Gurney’s performances were enhanced by one another with their undeniable chemistry. Orme was charismatic, had charm and seemed to be genuinely passionate about the club and the story of his community he was telling. If there was a captain of this cast, Orme would be front and centere.
Fantastic Foxes is great for any football fan or for someone with no knowledge of the game at all. Audiences will leave with a greater knowledge of the Foxes for sure, but regardless if you are into the sport or not, this is a great piece of theatre. Tackling community led issues with an enthusiastic cast, this is an entertaining piece of theatre all set amongst the backdrop of one of football’s greatest sporting stories.
Don’t drop the ball with Fantastic Foxes. This is the city’s latest sporting glory.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4*)
Gifted tickets in return for an honest review | photography by Manuel Harlan
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