The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Jumpers for Goalposts at the Bush Theatre

Jumpers for Goalposts at the Bush Theatre | Theatre review
29 November 2013
Rita Vicinanza
Rita Vicinanza
Avatar
Rita Vicinanza
29 November 2013

An ordinary changing room is where Jumpers for Goalposts unfolds. The set is reproduced accurately, most spectators will be familiar with such places. It could be at school for a curricular activity, in a sports centre or a random field near home where kids and adults alike spend their leisure time. Everyone can say they’ve been in one of those poorly maintained facilities.

Usually essentially decorated and often neglected, a changing room is unexpectedly fitting as a place to exchange jokes, opinions, share laughter or pain. The walls are permeated with the lives of those who pass by, exuding the energy captured from those who leave their marks there. In Jumpers for Goalposts we sneak little by little into the existences of Luke, Danny, Joe, Geoff and Viv, as they set up a football team and compete in a tournament.

James Grieve directs, sticking to the original instructions of playwright Tom Wells. Every gesture is studied but in the end it’s really up to the actors to make them look authentic. The cast overall does a good job; Philip Duguid-McQuillian however earns a particular mention for portraying his character in a most genuine manner. He is Luke, a 19-year-old clumsy, shy boy – still struggling to establish his own identity, which is why he clashes with Danny when the latter confronts him on a thorny topic. Luke is excellently and sympathetically depicted through a series of expressions and tics that expose his weaknesses.

The best feature of the play is that it is ridiculously funny. It explores more or less important themes with intensity, but the script is full of hilarious lines that make even the heaviest subjects more approachable. Its light-hearted attitude doesn’t affect the serious bits – there are touching scenes, both positive and negative, that cause the audience to hold their breath. At times the emotions feel a little contrived and some more space could have been agreed to the other characters (Luke and Danny’s stories orchestrate the play), but the laughter makes up for it.

Rita Vicinanza

Jumpers for Goalposts is at the Bush Theatre until 4th January 2014. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Watch the trailer for Jumpers for Goalposts here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Theatre

A Livestream with David Bedella at Crazy Coqs Online

★★★★★
Regan Harle
Read More

Undercover at Morpheus Show Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Playing ON: An interview with Jim Pope on life-changing theatre

Georgia Howlett
Read More

Sunset Boulevard at Curve Theatre Online

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

Hip Hop Cinderella

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Theatre in 2020: a recap (and an outlook for 2021)

Michael Higgs
Read More

A new world of theatre: Aimie Atkinson on groundbreaking theatre platform Thespie

Ezelle Alblas
Read More

Dick Whittington at the National Theatre

★★★★★
Samuel Nicholls
Read More

Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative – Edition Two at the Royal Court Theatre

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap
  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Outside the Wire
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • A Livestream with David Bedella at Crazy Coqs Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Blithe Spirit
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • You Me at Six – Suckapunch
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Sleaford Mods – Spare Ribs
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Away
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Imperial Blue
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
  • Mayor
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

David Ostrowski: Yes or Let’s Say No at Simon Lee Gallery | Exhibition review
Halbwelt Kultur at Jermyn Street | Theatre review