On to the play itself – and by now you should have been to see it. Being written by Stephen Lowe (a Forest fan) the play is centred around –
of course – the man himself, but also Nottingham. A playwright fallen on hard times pleas heavenward for inspiration – and due to an administrative error and some confusion over the words ‘Forest’ and ‘Lost’ on the message,
Brian Clough is dispatched to provide inspiration. That a man so inspiring in life is the centre of a play about inspiration is amazingly apt, and the story of the play sees the
writer eventually succeed in producing a play about Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The crucial element, however, is the lead role – Colin Tarrant is frankly tremendous as Clough. The accent wasn’t spot on, but wasn’t far off either. His look and mannerisms were eerily reminiscent of the public face of Brian Clough. Lowe notes in the foreword of the script that: “Writing a play for Nottingham about Brian Clough is dangerously akin to premiering a piece about Pope John Paul II in Rome.” Whilst he’s not kidding, playing the role of Clough is like that – to the power of ten! And Tarrant comes through the gauntlet unscathed – providing a serious, comedic, musical and finally a touching tribute to Brian.
Other cast members obviously take a back seat in the presence of Clough, but were well picked for their roles, many covering more than one. The appeal to the genders is somewhat out of balance – the ladies were treated to James Warrior’s (playing General William Booth) man-boobs in the opening ‘heavenly shower’ scene (plus the alarming prospect of seeing up his towel for those of us on the front row!). Less daunting for exponents of the female form, Laura Martin Simpson left little to the imagination as a roller-skating angel in the same scene. Let’s just say it must’ve been cold backstage and leave it at that!!
Little touches made this production – the overriding mood was that of laughter, this is a tribute and a comedy, the rewriting of ‘My Way’ with a few Cloughisms thrown in was tremendous, and surprisingly moving when repeated at the end. Some of the one-liners were awesome, credit to both the script writing but also to Tarrant for his immaculate sense of timing. The singing of "City Ground, oh mist rolling in from the Trent" was a nice touch – the video wall behind with images of Trent Bridge, The Playhouse, and various other landmarks set the mood and the scene nicely. The model of the City Ground appearing at the end was quite poignant at first, only for Clough to end up finishing his final rendition of ‘My Way’ with his head popping out from the middle of it in comedic fashion!
All in all, fully deserving of the standing ovation it received, it didn’t get one from this writer who was – as emotionally repressed blokes tend to do – was concentrating rather too much on suppressing any evidence of those emotions to do so, but I was standing in spirit! A fantastic performance and one I’m tempted to go and see again. If I ever see Colin Tarrant in a pub I’ll buy him a pint or several. It was a play that can’t fail to tickle the emotions of any Forest fan – but particularly those of us native to Nottingham. This is Nottingham’s tribute to the great man, and it made me feel very proud to be from this great city.