Theatre Review: Red Or Dead, Royal Court, Liverpool

It is a cliché to describe Red Or Dead as a play of two halves, given its subject matter is Bill Shankly’s iconic reign as manager of Liverpool FC, but inconveniently it happens to be true.

Whereas most dramatic depictions of sporting lives build to a valedictory climax, Merseyside writer Phillip Breen’s adaptation of the David Peace novel leaves us with a second act that is often subdued and melancholy. By now our protagonist – veteran film and TV star Peter Mullan returning to the stage as Shankly after a long hiatus – is grappling with the loss of purpose and identity that has come with retirement. The production’s most energising moments have already been and gone, coming before the interval as the Scottish manager succeeds in taking LFC from the second tier to a first division-winning force.

It is not coincidental that the first half makes most use of the whopping 52-strong ensemble; a professional cast of 12 including Les Dennis as weary club chairman Tom Williams supplemented by an army of Liverpudlians who throng across the stage, serving as narrators and Kopites, passing the dialogue line by line between them with a pace that brings to mind the movement of a team on the Anfield pitch.

Red or Dead at Liverpool’s Royal Court. Full cast. Image by Atanas Paskalev.

The inclusion of this Community Company is an inspired bit of production design, reflecting Shankly’s absolute insistence on loyalty and collectivism, and bringing dynamism to what at times feels like an extended narrative poem rather than a conventional drama. In the absence of all this human energy, much of the second half feels drab by contrast. The crowds have moved on, and Mullan’s Shankly becomes more of a lost soul. And also somehow more human.

While stylistically and visually the first half of Red Or Dead is more compelling, the constant bouncing of dialogue around the ensemble breaks up Mullan’s performance and prevents the watcher from really getting under the skin of his portrayal. “Bill walked alone” we hear towards the end, of a man who prized the team above individual in everything. And yet, Red Or Dead is ultimately a paean to a great manager and a rattle through the rise of LFC that will have enormous appeal to fans of the club.

There are elements of social history here – the arrival of Thatcher, who “supported no one”, gets a passing reference – but whether there is enough of a conventional plot here to compel a wider audience, in the manner of Peace’s other football novel-turned-drama The Damned United, remains to be seen. Luckily, there are plenty for whom the romance of the Shankly-Paisley era still burns bright, and who will relish every moment of seeing the glory days of Keegan (Matthew Devlin in a woeful wig) and Ian St John (George Jones) brought to life on stage.