The Bench is a funny and touching tale of two young people, who, while living very different lives, are both struggling to survive against the odds. The story makes for a sensitive, poignant and heart-warming love story, although it is set against the darker side of life on the economic margins and the seemingly glamorous world of professional football.
Adi, who is the local Premier League football team’s new signing and naturally desperate to impress, is struggling to find his place, on and off the pitch, while Vicky is a single mum, overwhelmed by everyday pressures. Although they seem to come from totally different worlds, during the course of the play, the pair discover that actually they have a lot more in common than they might at first have imagined.
The play
After receiving a warm welcome from staff at the Gala Theatre. I settled into my seat and soon the lights were dimmed and the play began. We see a young mum, Vicky, superbly played throughout by Hannah Marie Davis, coming on stage with a pram. A clearly worried young mum. To help her child get to sleep she sings to him, a song in French she remembered from her own childhood, which we return to later.
Just at that point a Premier League footballer, Adi, also very well played by Jason Njoroge, comes to a bench in the park, where Vicky is and sings along in French. It soon transpires that Adi was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but grew up in France, for reasons that become apparent later.
As Vicky and Adi, seemingly from two very different worlds, start talking, Vicky notes that where she lives is not a dodgy place just somewhere with a few dodgy people. As their conversation progresses, the language differences lead to a lot of humorous misunderstandings! These include talking about the difference between boules in French and talk of bowls in English, while Adi misunderstands the Geordie word bairn.
They find some common ground around the films of a long-deceased French film actor before Adi innocently commits a faux pas, and Vicky leaves. Adi is wealthy, but says that his life is not easy….
We are also treated to view of the sometimes cynical world of top-level football, with Adi feeling that he is nothing but a commodity, being sold like something off a supermarket shelf. He worries about being asked to promote consumer goods and being forced to tell lies about them, while his world-weary and cynical agent reminds him that he could be earning money that could go to the orphanage he plans to have built in the DRC. This is important to Adi, for reasons that become clear later in the play.
Adi is on the is on the substitute’s bench a lot, even though his team are said to be no good, but his agent reminds him that doesn’t matter who you play for; the Premier League is on television around the world. Meanwhile Adi wonders aloud who he really is. We see the emptiness of his life, for all his huge weekly wage. He is bought to score goals and he must score goals, but is struggling at present. In an echo of the famous real-life scene of Shaka Hislop at the petrol station outside St James’ Park in the 1990s Adi encounters racism from a fan. Indeed, the play explores the sad prevalence of racism in and out of the game…
Vicky’s life is fuller but, she is poor and is about to get poorer. She is however, busy with her child, named after her beloved grandfather. Vicky compares Adi’s life of immense wealth with the poverty all around her.
Interestingly for the North East audience, mention is made of countries buying Premier League teams with their money and power, while Vicky says that, while not really a football fan, she has been to a game a few times and noticed how the fans get so excited about their team, before commenting that isn’t really their team at all. This is surely something that football fans on Tyneside should be able to relate to…
The play contains a lot of humour, but often it is dark humour. There is particularly a lot of humour when Vicky is with her best friend Becs, played well by Abigail Lawson.
We see an expose of much of the shallowness of modern life, especially in a superb scene which has a juxtaposition of Vicky getting bad financial news on the phone, while Adi’s agent, played tremendously by Dave Nellist, on the other side of the stage, is talking about the millions to be made through professional football.
Vicky feels overwhelmed and her relationship with Adi becomes problematic, while he states that he didn’t ask for his huge weekly wage. Again, we see a clever juxtaposition as both main protagonists have somewhat different money problems. But Vicky doesn’t want any money from Adi…he is helping her by talking to her. Money can’t buy love…
Vicky is invited to a match by Adi, but turns the offer down, missing seeing Adi’s luck turning. She goes to see Adi after the match but is encountered by an example of just how much agents manipulate people in modern tope-level football.
Then we have the interval. Do Adi and Vicky find true love in the second half? Well, you will just have to go and see for yourself! But I can assure you that, like many of the best games of football, there are more then one twist towards the end of this wonderful tale. And as we learn some of Adi’s and Vicky’s deepest secrets, so there is much for the audience to ponder.
Comment
This was an excellent performance of a superbly written play, which like much of the best art, manages to seamlessly weave the humour and tragedy of the real world. It is also very well structured, with no parts dragging. And the performances by the actors were excellent, bringing out the pathos of the story and enabling me to really empathise with them, whether with their troubles or their successes.
This play, which has already understandably received warm praise, is written by former BBC TV Look North presenter Jeff Brown, who is an award-winning sports reporter who has covered football in the North East for almost 40 years.
The Bench is Jeff’s second play and is touring the North East and Cumbria in May and June 2025 with support from Show Racism the Red Card.
You can watch a short trailer here:
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