Love It If We Beat Them

Written by Rob Ward
Directed by Bex Bowsher
Performed by Jessica Johnson, David Nellist, Eve Tucker & Daniel Watson

Design by Alison Ashton
Sound design by Matthew Tuckey
Lighting design by Anna Reddyhoff

Football, politics and the Labour of love. A winning new play about how things can only get better.  It’s Spring 1996, Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United are riding high in the Premier League and Tony Blair’s New Labour are gathering pace. Hope is in the air and victory seems within reach. Len, a long-term hard-left activist, has decided to run as a candidate for local Labour MP, but the arrival of Victoria from Manchester as New Labour’s front-runner throws a spanner in the works. With loyalties tested and tensions reaching fever pitch, the winning team will be decided in an explosive head-to-head challenge.

Set against the backdrop of the infamous Premier League season when Newcastle United almost won under the management of Kevin Keegan, Love It If We Beat Them explores the age-old political questions: What is power without principle? And what are principles without power? 

Love It If We Beat Them is a new political drama that explores a time of significant change in the identity of the North East communities and perfectly captures a moment in recent history that defines who we are today.