Reader Reviews
Singin' I'm No a Billy He's a Tim (Cockpit Theatre, Inner London)
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 | By Richard PurdenTwo hate-filled Old Firm fans are put into a prison cell on the day their teams meet on the park. Under the microscope Dillon plays out all their fears, paranoia, misconceptions and the hatred that has shaped their lives.One of the major delusions he deals with early on is when Rangers fan Billy announces: “We took you in.”You can see the audience wincing in their seat at the tangible ignorance. But most importantly Dillon’s play suggests the bigotry unites both sets of fans.“It’s boring without an enemy,” Tim admits.Dillon doesn’t take one side, here the Celtic fan is embittered, and he holds onto the mistakes of the past and is stunted by them. At the same time there is no line as hate-filled as “Up to our knees in Fenian blood.”Tim points out if this line was sung at any football match and you replaced Fenian with Paki or any other racial type there would be uproar — but not in Scotland. The nature of the two supporters is also revealing. A Celtic fan will insult you with a slap on the back, a smile on his face and with the wink of an eye but the Rangers fan may say the same line and sound stoic, bitter and twisted.How each supporter feels about his national identity is shaped by the other. The Rangers fan is one of the last bastions of a British identity without understanding what that means.Both sets of these supporters lose their Scottish identity because their understanding of Scotland is shaped by their adversary. Even if it’s just for a moment at the end of the play they both begin to realise their intolerance of each other has made them social lepers - richard purdon - irish news | 24 Oct 12 |
