Simon Ward reviews The Pitch at Theatre503

Philip Catherwood’s new play, directed by Thea Mayeux, is not the first to investigate the thorny issue of land and its use on the island of Ireland, but his approach is refreshingly free of the weight of history which normally surrounds it. His protagonists are young people living in a Belfast suburb, whose lives revolve around the same things as young people everywhere – school, family, the first tentative urgings of sexuality. They just happen to live in Northern Ireland. They also share a passion for a game they all call football, although they don’t mean exactly the same thing.

We first meet Deren (Jake Douglas) and Robbie (James Grimm) as they are both changing after practice, their belongings in Tesco bags. They manoeuvre around each other to establish on which side of the sectarian dividing line they lie, but their common interest in sport transcends their differences. That is, until it becomes apparent that Deren’s game is, in fact, Gaelic football – a game which Robbie sees as cheating because the players can use their hands. Deren explains that it is, in fact, the perfect game, the offspring of rugby and soccer brought together to create something even better. Is this a metaphor for how a future Ireland might be born if the border were erased? Robbie is not convinced, but is just about prepared to listen.

Enter Melissa (Dión di Maio), Robbie’s sister, also into football, although she is younger and less committed than the boys. She is planning her future, and also, hilariously, inventing an elaborate plot to get revenge on the boy who dumped her friend. Her world is less rigid than the boys and she is more intrigued about what will happen in ‘The Referendum’. This throws up the question about when the play is actually set. It becomes clear that they don’t mean the Good Friday Agreement referendum, they are talking about a vote on a ‘United Ireland’, so we are in an imagined, but seemingly not-too-distant future. There is talk of protests, in which Robbie and Melissa’s father is active, but, optimistically perhaps, there is no sign of any violent disorder.

The play is the story of three adolescents navigating their relationship – they have been thrown together over the use of a football pitch which everyone wants as their own. They need to come to an arrangement which is equitable for everyone, but, inevitably, someone will have to lose something. Can they negotiate that, while remaining civil and seeing each other’s point of view? It is a clever and compelling story of how it just might be possible for competing identities and traditions to be reconciled. There will be consequences, not everyone will be satisfied, but ultimately a happier, more humane society could emerge. It is a rare statement of hope in a world which is looking increasingly bleak.

The Pitch is running at Theatre503, 503 Battersea Park Road, London SW11 3BW until 27th September and the Lyric Theatre, Belfast from 2nd to 4th October