Alone It Stands

This true David and Goliath story – of how an amateur Irish rugby team beat
one of the world’s best rugby teams, the New Zealand All Blacks, in a match on 31
October 1978 – has now become the stuff of another David and Goliath story.

The Yew Tree Theatre Company, based in County Mayo in northwest Ireland, first
staged Alone it Stands at Waterford Rugby Club, and subsequently
toured it to other rugby clubs, parish halls, and even the high security
wing of Portlaoise prison. Now – after a season on the Edinburgh Fringe in
2000 – it has arrived at the West End’s Duchess Theatre.

Amiable and entertaining though it certainly is, John Breen’s play – which
the author also directs – does not have quite the resonance or universal
appeal of its fellow Irish sleeper hit, Stones in His Pocket. While the
latter similarly progressed via a run on the Edinburgh Fringe to London’s
Tricycle and subsequently a West End run unbroken to this day, Alone it Stands is only a filler for the Duchess until a new play arrives there
in mid-February.

With no great claims made for it, it’s an engaging and energetic piece,
beautifully bringing a landmark day in Irish rugby to theatrical life with
just six resourceful actors. Since no television cameras recorded the actual
event, its legacy has been passed down via the oral tradition; and this
theatricalisation provides another means of spreading that story.

It not
only takes you into the scrum – and through a match that culminated in a
12:0 victory for the local team – but spins its drama into a slightly
overlong two hours beyond it. In the process, Breen’s piece covers some of the
off-pitch events, too, such as the birth of twins to a fan’s wife while he’s
watching the match on the terraces.

While anyone who saw John Godber’s Olivier-award winning 1980s rugby comedy Up ‘n’ Under will inevitably experience a sense of deja vu
watching this, it’s still refreshing to see such an unassumingly populist
and vibrant piece of often highly physical community theatre staking its
claim to the West End.

– Mark Shenton