Review by Hilary Wardle

Though it gets off to a slow start, this mini-play about three rugby players does eventually draw you in, largely due to an excellent performance by Tom Magnus who plays the reluctant, hungover Freddie, a man who’d much rather be weeping in bed than playing a Saturday match for fictional RFC team the Clapham Falcons.

His teammates certainly don’t help matters. Olly is a self-absorbed ‘rugger bugger’ and pathological liar who treats his girlfriend Ellie like dirt, while Archie... well, he wears a headguard throughout the show, but you get the feeling that’s a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

When we join this trio of maladjusted (and dim-witted) flatmates they’re about to go into battle against a rival team to avoid relegation, but the odds are stacked against them. Not only is their ‘team’ very passive (we’re the audience, what did they expect?) but Freddie is also fighting internal turmoil as he’s deeply and secretly in love with his pal Olly’s girlfriend.

It all plays out roughly as you might expect, with funny pep talks interspersed with quite affecting sequences where Freddie is torn between his duty to his friend and his feelings for Ellie. Again, without Tom’s performance the show wouldn’t have scraped a third star, but the effort he puts into his ‘tortured pub chef’ face is thoroughly impressive. There are also a fair few laughs, with the scene where Freddie is trying to hide from his one night stand a particular highlight.

They also use audience participation to good effect, luring two members on stage to celebrate their victory at the end, throwing them rugby shirts and making them dance around, sing and chant. It’s all good fun, but despite the frequent references to the pub and ‘beer engines’, you get the feeling the threesome could have wrung a bit more humour out of the various extremes of rugby lad culture.

Still, their energy and talent combined with an interesting plot and some funny moments meant that – though they fumbled it a few times- they just about managed to keep their egg in the air.

Review date: 25 Aug 2013
Reviewed by: Hilary Wardle