Black Diamonds and Blue Brazil review – daughter waits to fulfill her soccer-loving father’s wishes | Theater

Black of diamonds and what they were digging in Fife coal fields. Blue Brazil is an unlikely name for Cowdenbeath football club. Together, in the 1993 book by Ron Fergusonthey represent the bitter hopes of an oppressed town: coal that brought jobs, fatal accidents and unemployment; a group that brought moments of joy and a litany of loss. You could call it an underdog victory, except this team doesn’t win.

“Some things are more important than success,” is the catchphrase of the ex-miner and die-hard Cowdenbeath (Barrie Hunter) who haunts this heartfelt adaptation of Gary McNair, broadcast for the first time. as an audio drama in 2021. Most importantly, the playwright can argue, and feel for the community, share experiences, learn not to be defeated by the closing of the hole, loss of work, dismissal and death. It’s about “how to lose and still have hope”.

This is a hard lesson to learn from the fan’s daughter, Sally Venters McAlpine (named in honor of the 1930s inside shooter Alex Venters), an aspiring lawyer who has fled a hometown that, for her, represents defeat. After his father died at the age of 53 from black lung disease, the result of coal dust inhalation, he feels the responsibility to fulfill his last wish: to scatter his ashes in Central Park the next time Blue Brazil wins.

Surely it wouldn’t take long, he thought, not barring competition from Clydebank, Dunfermline Athletic, Meadowbank Thistle and the rest. Like Ricky Ross he sings behind the piano in his set of soulful folk-blues: “It’s going to be a long, long season.”

Tall, yes, but in James Brining’s mild, minor keys, Dawn Steele doesn’t make herself look that way. What amounts to a monologue that intervenes from time to time from the intelligent and easy-going Hunter, is the best narrator of her story, a woman who has been disillusioned and fascinated by the environment in which she grew up. As the defeats mount, they show Sally’s transition from outsider to outsider with subtlety and grace. It’s not a high-stakes game – the odds are low, the stakes are low – but a win, a personal win.