Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh****

I’ve never got football…until now.

While, to my mind, it consists of 22 men being paid huge amounts of money to kick a ball for hundreds if not thousands of fans, some of whom go on to cause havoc in surrounding streets, Ron Ferguson’s story, sensitively adapted by Gary McNair with his signature humour, helped me understand just how important it can be to support your local football team.

Sally, a trainee solicitor in London, goes home to Cowdenbeath for her dad’s funeral. His one wish was that his ashes be scattered on Central Park, Cowdenbeath FC’s home ground. His one proviso, that they be scattered after a home win.

And so we follow Sally’s story as she returns week after week, hoping her dad’s team will score the winning goal. At first she just wants to get back to London, she doesn’t feel she belongs. But over time she comes to understand just what it means to belong – to a community, to a club, especially in a town which has little else to offer – and why The Blue Brazil (the FC’s nickname) was so important to him.

Dawn Steele, of Holby City, Wild at Heart, Monarch of the Glen and EastEnders fame, instantly engages us with her openness and warmth. There is no fourth wall as she tells her tale directly to the audience, initially asking them if they’ve even heard of Cowdenbeath (it’s a former mining town in Fife, 18 miles north of Edinburgh!). She’s funny, vulnerable, feisty, moving and, in the end, had me in tears. Directed by the Lyceum’s new artistic director James Brining, her timing’s spot on as she plays imaginary characters and dips in and out of her memories of her dad, who makes the occasional appearance and is understatedly played by Barrie Hunter. 

That’s not all. On stage the whole time is Ricky Ross, founding member of the band Deacon Blue, who composed the 13 songs he sings during the production, adding another layer to the story.

Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil is not about football. It is about being passionate, about community, about belonging, and we can all do with more of that in these troubled times. As Sally says, I would nae miss it!

Image: Aly Wight

Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil is at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh until May 23.

Box Office: 0131 248 4848

lyceum.org.uk