Red Pitch (NHB Modern Plays)

By Tyrell Williams

Red Pitch. South London. Three lifelong friends Omz, Bilal and Joey are playing football. Like they always have. Living out dreams of football stardom. Beyond their football pitch, local shops are closing, old flats are being demolished as new flats shoot up, some residents struggle to stay while others rush to leave.
When your local football pitch has been a home from home, a place where you've laughed, fought and forged friendships, what happens when it's under threat?
A coming-of-age story about what it means to belong somewhere, Tyrell Williams' fast-paced and sharp-edged play tells a powerful story about gentrification, regeneration and the impact of this relentless change on London's communities.
Red Pitch was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, in February 2022, directed by Associate Artistic Director Daniel Bailey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Feb 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781788505062

Tyrell Williams

Tyrell Williams is a writer and director for stage and screen. He co-created, co-wrote and directed the viral web series #HoodDocumentary, which had over three million views on YouTube. Following its online acclaim, #HoodDocumentary was commissioned as a web series for BBC Three, which Tyrell directed and co-wrote. His plays include Red Pitch (Ovalhouse Theatre, London, 2019; Bush Theatre, London, 2022; West End, 2024). Red Pitch was the winner of the 2022 George Devine Award). He was named Best Writer at the 2022 Stage Debut Awards, and Most Promising Playwright at the 2022 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Book preview

Tyrell Williams

RED PITCH

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Original Production Details

Acknowledgements

Epigraph

Characters

Red Pitch

About the Author

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Red Pitch was first performed at the Bush Theatre, London, on 16 February 2022, with the following cast:

Supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts, a donor advised fund at the London Community Foundation, and the Backstage Trust.

An earlier version of Red Pitch was presented on 22 June 2019, as part of the Untold Season at Ovalhouse, London, and a ten-minute version won ‘Audience Favourite’ at the Young Harts Writing Festival, Lyric Hammersmith, London on 7 April 2019, both directed by Daniel Bailey.

Special thanks to:

Daniel L Bailey

Ann Akin

Ovalhouse Theatre

Titilola Dawudu

Toby Clarke

Michael Ajao

Ayomide Adegun

Ikky Elyaz

Montel Douglas

Malcolm Atobrah

Abdul Abdallah

Gamba Cole

Ivan Oyik

Imogen Sarre

Kirsten Foster

T.W.

‘How they talking on what’s threatening the economy? Knocking down communities to re-up on properties’

Little Simz, ‘Introvert’

Characters

BILAL AMARAL, sixteen, male, Black OMZ (OMAR) RICHARDS, sixteen, male, Black JOEY (JOSEPH) SESAY, sixteen, male, Black

Notes

The play is set in present-day ‘urban’ South London.

This story is taking place inside of a football pitch – ‘Red Pitch’ – in summer.

There are scaffoldings around the football pitch.

A constant soundscape of construction underneath the piece throughout its entirety is important to the telling of this story and should be considered seriously in each production. The soundscape of construction should at times feel literal, and at other times abstract, representing the state of the friendship between Bilal, Joey and Omz. It should be interspersed with a protest pertaining to the survival of Esme’s dry cleaner’s that begins innocuous, then grows in its potency but ultimately is silenced. The specific sounds and journeys of the sounds are decisions to be made at the director’s discretion.

A dash (–) is used to indicate an interruption and a slash (/) denotes an overlapping in dialogue.

Pauses and silences are important but are not fixed. Each pause and silence should be considered in that moment. However, more often than not, a silence should be longer than a pause.

This text went to press before the end of rehearsals and so may differ slightly from the play as performed.

Scene One

It’s the summer holidays and there are two young friends, BILAL and OMZ, playing football inside of a football pitch whilst the third friend, JOEY, is attentively watching the game whilst in goal. The game is FA.

BILAL and OMZ are really going for it. There is grabbing, hard tackles flying in and sweat pouring from their faces. Eventually, BILAL does his classic ‘drop, drop’ shoulder move (a move in which he shifts his body weight to his right then to his left then back to his right whilst tapping the ball in that direction) taking him around OMZ. BILAL shoots and scores a goal past JOEY, effectively ending the game.

BILAL remains humble in victory. OMZ is disappointed.

JOEY. Good shot bro.

BILAL. Light work.

JOEY. Mbappe yeah? Make sure you do that at the trials.

BILAL. Obviously. ‘Drop, drop’ shoulder – easy.

BILAL does the ‘drop, drop’ shoulder move again without the ball.

Omz, I want a tropical juice yeah.

OMZ pauses for a second, taken aback. He looks around as though BILAL could never be talking to him.

OMZ. What?

BILAL. Tropical juice. It’s a blue carton – says ‘Sun Pride’ on it.

OMZ. Why’s that my problem?

JOEY. Here we go…

BILAL. Red Pitch rules: Loser of FA goes shop for the winner. You lost. I won so pick me up a tropical juice… and a Twix.

JOEY. Let’s just play FIFA you man.

OMZ stands still staring

Reviews for Red Pitch (NHB Modern Plays)

[Mario Vasilev · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Nicely captures the youthful nature and dynamic of coming of age boys, but it just goes nowhere. Keeps the reader anticipating the depth of the story but it only keeps you on the surface. It feels more like a writer’s exercise than a fully developed play. I’d recommend reading it, because there’s a nice natural flow that someone might really enjoy.