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| Manchester: a city united by football in By Far the Greatest Team | Manchester: a city united by football in By Far the Greatest Team |
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| A play exploring the passion, rivalry and loyalty of football fans in Manchester is to make its debut this week. | A play exploring the passion, rivalry and loyalty of football fans in Manchester is to make its debut this week. |
| By Far the Greatest Team, which will premiere at the Lowry in Manchester, features four individual plays written by Manchester-based playwrights – two Manchester United fans and two Manchester City fans – all in a single 90-minute production. | |
| Each playwright was tasked with writing a piece that explores why football is such an important part of Manchester’s identity and telling individual stories around the experience of being a football fan in a city where team loyalty and rivalry is part of everyday life. | Each playwright was tasked with writing a piece that explores why football is such an important part of Manchester’s identity and telling individual stories around the experience of being a football fan in a city where team loyalty and rivalry is part of everyday life. |
| “There’s something about Manchester,” said Andrew Sheridan, one of the playwrights who has been a lifelong Manchester United fan. | “There’s something about Manchester,” said Andrew Sheridan, one of the playwrights who has been a lifelong Manchester United fan. |
| “It is a city that has a history of being really revolutionary. The computer was made in Manchester, the suffragette movement began in Manchester, the best bands came from Manchester and now the best football teams come from Manchester – in my opinion anyway.” | “It is a city that has a history of being really revolutionary. The computer was made in Manchester, the suffragette movement began in Manchester, the best bands came from Manchester and now the best football teams come from Manchester – in my opinion anyway.” |
| “So it is really interesting to have a project where you can marry art and football together and bring in audiences that possibly don’t go to the theatre. The goal here is to have an audience full of football supporters as well as people who usually go to the theatre, in a kind of communion.” | “So it is really interesting to have a project where you can marry art and football together and bring in audiences that possibly don’t go to the theatre. The goal here is to have an audience full of football supporters as well as people who usually go to the theatre, in a kind of communion.” |
| While no football will be played on stage, the Lowry theatre itself will be transformed into a pitch for the production, including astroturf, a player’s tunnel and floodlighting. | While no football will be played on stage, the Lowry theatre itself will be transformed into a pitch for the production, including astroturf, a player’s tunnel and floodlighting. |
| Sheridan’s play is based loosely around the experiences of a fellow Manchester United fan, and his dog, who got to know over his years supporting the club, while Sarah McDonald Hughes, another of the writers and Manchester City fan, has written her play about the experiences of a young girl who gets to know her father through football. | Sheridan’s play is based loosely around the experiences of a fellow Manchester United fan, and his dog, who got to know over his years supporting the club, while Sarah McDonald Hughes, another of the writers and Manchester City fan, has written her play about the experiences of a young girl who gets to know her father through football. |
| “Wherever you go in Manchester you can’t go very far without someone getting in a heated argument about United or City, it’s kind of like a religion here and affects their everyday lives,” said Hughes. | “Wherever you go in Manchester you can’t go very far without someone getting in a heated argument about United or City, it’s kind of like a religion here and affects their everyday lives,” said Hughes. |
| “We wanted to explore how is it that theatre doesn’t achieve what football achieves every week, in terms of the reaction to it, the spectators and the experience for them. That is really what theatre is also going for – to try and evoke and engage people in the moment and create these emotional journeys – but so often doesn’t manage it.” | “We wanted to explore how is it that theatre doesn’t achieve what football achieves every week, in terms of the reaction to it, the spectators and the experience for them. That is really what theatre is also going for – to try and evoke and engage people in the moment and create these emotional journeys – but so often doesn’t manage it.” |
| Despite the world of theatre and football being usually worlds apart, Hughes said that fusing the two had proved very fruitful and showed how, in terms of drama and emotion, they were not as different as she had previously imagined. | Despite the world of theatre and football being usually worlds apart, Hughes said that fusing the two had proved very fruitful and showed how, in terms of drama and emotion, they were not as different as she had previously imagined. |
| For director Martin Gibbons, the whole production should feel itself like a football match. “It’s got highs, its got lows, it’s got City, it’s got United. And as a City fan or a United fan, you might feel at times that you don’t want to be there, you don’t want to be hearing about how great the other team are, but that’s football isn’t it?” | For director Martin Gibbons, the whole production should feel itself like a football match. “It’s got highs, its got lows, it’s got City, it’s got United. And as a City fan or a United fan, you might feel at times that you don’t want to be there, you don’t want to be hearing about how great the other team are, but that’s football isn’t it?” |
| By focusing on individual experiences of fandom, added Gibbons, it would hopefully break through the aggressive stereotypes around football fans. If the project is successful in Manchester, there are plans already to repeat the project in other football cities in the UK, and potentially abroad, with completely new writers. | By focusing on individual experiences of fandom, added Gibbons, it would hopefully break through the aggressive stereotypes around football fans. If the project is successful in Manchester, there are plans already to repeat the project in other football cities in the UK, and potentially abroad, with completely new writers. |
| “This is a play exploring what football does to people, and in particular what it does to people who might be apathetic about politics or might be apathetic about religion or may have trouble with relationships in their lives,” said Gibbons. | “This is a play exploring what football does to people, and in particular what it does to people who might be apathetic about politics or might be apathetic about religion or may have trouble with relationships in their lives,” said Gibbons. |
| “So what is it about football that manages to break through all that and makes people care and cry and laugh and get together as a community and feel like something that is important to people? Because that’s one of the things about football; it really matters to people.” | “So what is it about football that manages to break through all that and makes people care and cry and laugh and get together as a community and feel like something that is important to people? Because that’s one of the things about football; it really matters to people.” |