Alex Hill’s one-man-play returns, and he’s veritably exploding with energy as football fanatic Billy Kinley, a character drawn from a viral video where some wildly overexcited guy did exactly what the title says.
Billy rushes onto the stage for impassioned singing, yelling, and leaping about, before we quickly get to what we know is coming, with only a simulation of the flare business and the back of Billy’s undies. We then get to know more about this London lad and the people around him, including longtime bestie Adam, new girlfriend Daisy, and the rather more dangerous ‘Winegum’.
We’re at first invited to laugh loudly at his tunnel-visioned-love for the sport, and the ridiculous hysteria surrounding the delayed Euro 2020 tournament, but then things gradually turn as he meets a scarier crowd, and gets mixed up in drugs and hooliganism. Daisy is obviously concerned about him too, and she tries to get him away from the game, which leads to a lengthy and simply hilarious sequence where he awkwardly barges into the audience to (supposedly) watch Les Misérables onstage, and naturally reacts as if it was football.
It’s obvious that this is all leading somewhere dark, and when it finally sneaks in, the effect is very moving indeed, as we’re shown just how toxic that old toxic masculinity can be.
And we see that this was never solely about football in the first place. Or ar***.
Rating: four stars!
For tickets and more information on Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Ar** For England, visit: adelaidefringe.com.au or holdenstreettheatres.com
