How far would you go to support your team, or to have a laugh?
For football-mad Billy Kinley, the ultimate display of fun and national pride culminates in an unthinkable placing of a flare between his cheeks in Leicester Square. It is this moment, a true story which went viral in the aftermath of the Euro 2020 final, which inspires this terrific solo show, though the production of Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England speaks about more than just the dangers of pyrotechnics.
Performed to critical acclaim during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023, 2024, and 2025, this West End staging of Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England marks a victory lap for writer and performer Alex Hill, whose wit, charisma, and deft delivery bring to the fore, in this beautifully crafted play, conversations about masculinity, hooliganism, tribalism, and male mental health.
Billy is the stereotypical working-class football fan. Initially, football is a passion shared between Billy and his best mate, Adam, a bond shared and forged over a kickabout with a Bobby Moore signed ball and an affiliation to AFC Wimbledon. Despite their different paths in life, Adam, a banker, and Billy, a salon sweeper, are glued together because of their love for The Beautiful Game. Yet, it is also this fandom which derails both Billy’s life and his relationships, as Hill’s script unpacks the darker side of football’s fan culture.
Things turn when Billy and an unwilling Adam get themselves caught up in the club’s ‘Firm’, led by the menacing ‘Wine Gum’, ‘Elton John’, ‘Chris Tingle’, ‘Rodney’, and ‘Mrs Beaver’, with the quartet’s goofy names disguising their menacing and violent tendencies. Hill, who multi-roles primarily as Wine Gum from the five, succeeds in both portraying and writing football hooligans as lost souls in a society where football offers them a sense of belonging, and as brutish thugs, violent and racist, nodding to the notion that such groups spoil the sport for others.
As Billy, Hill is in fine form. Billy’s frantic energy on matchday, his drink and drug addictions, and his volatile relationships all fizz to the surface with aplomb. What starts as a depiction of a recognisable football fan becomes something much sadder and much more poignant, depicting a man regretting poor choices and lost relationships. One of the play’s most touching moments sees Billy watch Les Misérables with his girlfriend Daisy, where the musical touches Billy deeply, yet a message from Wine Gum derails Billy’s enjoyment and pulls him back into a toxic masculine environment.
Under Sean Turner’s direction, Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England builds to a devastatingly powerful finale, which Hill performs with outstanding poise and control. The bravado of the terraces gone, Billy stands alone in a rare moment of quiet in the piece, which enables the script’s focus on male mental health to gently dissipate into the audience.
While the title alone might get audiences intrigued, it is the final few moments that make fans of this production come back for more. Hill’s script and delivery scores goal after goal in a dominant performance, yet it is the last-minute winner which seals this production’s three points.
An unequivocal triumph.
