BRIAN
CLOUGH DRAMA COMING TO SUNDERLAND
The Damned United
Sunderland Royalty Theatre
Tuesday 13th
- Wednesday 14th November 2018
A play about legendary
manager Brian Clough is coming to Sunderland – the city where his playing
career was so tragically cut short.
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OLD BIG HEAD - Luke Dickson as Brian Clough
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Clough was only 29 when
an on-pitch collision on Boxing Day 1962 ended his days as a striker. He had moved
to the Black Cats from his hometown club Middlesbrough in 1961 and went on to score
63 goals in just 74 appearances.
Always controversial,
Clough became a hugely-successful manager, lifting the European Cup twice, as
well as the League Cup (four times) and winning the First Division title with
both Derby County and Nottingham Forest.
Anders Lustgarten’s
play The Damned United charts his turbulent 44 days at Leeds United and will be
performed at The Royalty Theatre in November.
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WINNING
PARTNERSHIP
Luke Dickson as Brian Clough and
David Chafer as Peter Taylor
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A sell-out success when it received its world
premiere in 2016, The Damned United is touring nationally for the first time
and is being brought to the city by Sunderland Culture through its Sunderland
Stages programme. The play features Luke Dickson as Brian Clough, David Chafer
as Peter Taylor and Jamie Smelt as Sam Longson and other roles.
The play’s director, Rod Dixon, is very much
looking forward to bringing the play to Sunderland: “It’s a footballing city
and obviously has close links to Clough so I’m excited about delivering the
play at The Royalty.”
Rod, a Liverpool fan, thinks that Clough
would have gone on to be one of SAFC’s greatest ever players if it hadn’t been
for the Boxing Day injury: “There is footage of the tackle in the production
and it’s difficult to watch as it’s a bad collision. Football was rougher and
tougher in those days, but it was still a really bad tackle – you can see from
the footage how much pain Clough was in.
“I’m sure he would have gone on to be a
Sunderland legend – he was a great player and a natural leader on the pitch.”
The play is about Clough’s attempt to rebuild
his managerial reputation after he resigned from Derby County, where he had
been very successful and had then gone on to manage third division Brighton and
Hove Albion.
It was a major surprise when Clough announced
he was to become manager of Leeds United, a team he had previously strongly criticized.
His stated aim was to win the European Cup with his new team. Without his usual
sidekick, assistant manager Peter Taylor, Clough lasted 44 days before he was
sacked.
“Although clearly based around football,
non-footy fans have been shocked at how much they’ve enjoyed the show, which is
based on David Peace’s book, not the film. Much of it is about the closeness of
the relationship between Clough and Peter Taylor – Clough’s arrogance and
vulnerability.
“He was a complex character and as a football
manager felt everything – he lived every tackle, every pass, every goal. The
play has gone down well wherever we’ve been. We were down in Plymouth recently
and that is a town very passionate about their football. The theatre manager
there said he’d never seen so many men attend a show before, which was great.”
The play is adapted
from David Peace’s best-selling novel and presented by Red Ladder Theatre.
Tickets:
For tickets go to www.sunderlandstages.com
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