Billy the Kid

Synopsis

The only thing Billy ever wanted to do was play for Chelsea - and his dream came true when he was signed by the club to become a champion striker for the first team. But that was 1939. Then the Second World War began and Billy’s life changed forever. Will Billy the Kid ever see his beloved Chelsea again? A heart-warming story of football, war and dreams. Billy the Kid is adapted from the hit novel by Michael Morpurgo, former children’s laureate and award-winner author of popular children’s books, including War Horse and Private Peaceful.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 29 September 2011

All change at the Unicorn Theatre where Tony Graham has done such a good job these last 14 years; he signs off with a revival of the Michael Morpurgo football show he first did four years ago - I recall watching it on Cup Final Day followed by the match itself on a big screen projection - and Purni Morell of the National Theatre studio moves into the hot seat soon.

Billy does slacken a little in the second half, but this play is a game of two halves in which a dear old Chelsea Pensioner - beautifully played by Dudley Sutton - confronts his past in the park, and on the battlefields of Europe, and ponders the future.

The memories of the old player are prodded by a young footballer, played by Sam Donovan, and dreams of standing in the Shed are mixed with those of playing at Stamford Bridge; the only problem with the play is that you never know if the young chap is the old boy, his own son, or somebody else completely.

There are a fe...

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