Brighton Theatre Royal Review: Stand or Fall

Rating: ★★★★

Running Dates: Wednesday 23rd September-Saturday 26th September

Where to see it: Brighton Theatre Royal

Play written by Mark Brailsford

Review

The feeling that this will be a show unlike any other begins in the lobby, before the play has even started. Football fans sporting Brighton & Hove Albion shirts crowd the theatre, beers in hand, as conversations drift towards shared memories of the club.

Stand or Fall is a play written by a fan, for the fans of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club. Created to celebrate 125 years of the club, it begins during its final years at the Goldstone Ground, before tracing the difficult period when Brighton no longer had a proper home stadium. From there, it follows the club's unlikely rise through the ranks, eventually reaching the Premier League, moving into the brand-new Amex Stadium and making its first appearance in a European Championship.

Running alongside this history is the story of one family and three generations of supporters, whose lives become intertwined with the fortunes of the club. Grandad passes his passion down to his son, Bob, who in turn introduces his son Danny to the Saturday football match ritual. Danny is just 13 when the play begins, and we watch him grow up against the backdrop of the club's most turbulent years.

There is also Sally, Bob's wife, who initially finds herself frustrated by her husband's obsession with football. But as the club's future becomes increasingly uncertain, she finds her own cause to fight for: helping to find Brighton a new home. Her relationship with Bob ebbs and flows alongside the fortunes of the club, with their own successes, frustrations and heartbreaks mirroring those of the team they love. Another important character is Barbara, or Babs, who grows up attending games with the family and whose relationship with Danny blossoms throughout the play. 

The staging is deliberately stripped back. A screen is used to project images, backdrops and, most importantly, significant clips from the club's history. This creates an interesting dynamic between the stage and the audience: the actors become spectators alongside us, watching the same moments and reacting to them as fans would in the stands. We are not simply watching a story about football supporters; for much of the play, we become part of that crowd with them.

At its heart, Stand or Fall is not really about football players, or even about the history of the club. It is about the families who have stuck with Brighton and Hove Albion through thick and thin: the people who kept turning up when the club had nowhere to play, who fought for a new home, and who passed their passion down to the next generation. These are the same kinds of people sitting in the audience, recognising their own memories and experiences on stage.

That sense of recognition is perhaps the play's greatest strength. Its jokes, references and moments of anticipation are clearly made for people who know the club's history. The audience knows what is coming, laughs at the familiar references and braces itself for moments they have lived through themselves. At times, those references may go over the head of anyone outside the world of Brighton football. But that specificity is also what gives the play its warmth and authenticity.

Ultimately, Stand or Fall feels less like a conventional theatre production and more like a celebration: a love letter to Brighton, to the club, and above all to the fans who have carried it through 125 years.

Written by Phoebe Simpson

We were kindly gifted these tickets in exchange for a review