{"id":377171,"date":"2025-09-24T13:57:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T13:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=377171"},"modified":"2025-10-07T14:29:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T18:29:59","slug":"london-hit-red-pitch-at-olney-theatre-teams-with-teenage-male-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2025\/09\/24\/london-hit-red-pitch-at-olney-theatre-teams-with-teenage-male-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"London hit \u2018Red Pitch\u2019 at Olney Theatre roots for teenage male friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the audience filed into Olney Theatre Center\u2019s Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab Saturday night for the U.S. premiere of Red Pitch<\/em>, the small cast of three was already in motion, showing off their soccer moves on the red concrete stage. An errant kick sent the ball flying squarely toward an usher directing patrons to their seats. Looking every bit as mortified as three teenage schoolboys, actors Ty\u2019Ree Hope Davis, Terrence Griffin, and Angelo Harrington II bounded over to hug the usher before returning to the stage, comically chastising each other along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This unscripted preshow moment felt like an entirely believable opening to Red Pitch<\/em>, the story of Black British teenagers Bilal (Davis), Joey (Griffin), and Omz (Harrington), who gather each day on the titular \u201cred pitch\u201d \u2014 a patch of concrete in a fictional South London neighborhood known as \u201cthe endz.\u201d As the neighborhood changes around them, with the chicken wing shop on the corner giving way to an upscale coffee shop and the residents of their council estate (public housing project) relocating one by one as apartment blocks are slated for demolition, Bilal, Joey, and Omz ground themselves in their shared dreams of playing professional football (soccer). As factors and forces beyond their control loom over their lives, the boys find sanctuary in the red pitch and in their friendship. But as the redevelopment of \u201cthe endz\u201d marches on, the boys\u2019 lives as residents of public housing grow increasingly precarious, threatening both their friendship and the \u201cred pitch\u201d that forges it. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Scene from \u2018Red Pitch\u2019 featuring Ty\u2019Ree Hope Davis, Terrence Griffin, and Angelo Harrington II. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Following sold-out runs at London\u2019s Bush Theatre in 2022 and 2023, where it earned all five of the UK\u2019s Off West End Awards for Best New Play, and a West End premiere in 2024, playwright Tyrell Williams and director Daniel Bailey have brought Red Pitch<\/em> to the U.S. for the first time at Olney, mounting the play with an American cast and crew. Soccer consultant Malcolm Harris trained the actors in an on-field bootcamp this summer, while dialect coach Yetunde Felix-Ukwu has the DC-based cast speaking with the accents and slang of young Black Londoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams describes his writing style as character-driven, stating in a preshow panel, \u201cI enjoy exploring humans.\u201d The three actors fill the stage with energy, bantering and one-upping each other as they train for a football club tryout while juggling family pressures, uncertain futures, relationships (or the lack thereof), and breakups. Their performances reveal the full humanity of these young men, each interaction peeling back new layers as the play unfolds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Bilal, Ty\u2019Ree Hope Davis is all long limbs and nervous energy. Single-mindedly focused on \u201cmaking it\u201d as a footballer, he constantly urges Joey and Omz to keep practicing while they tease him that a successful man also needs to rest. Beneath Bilal\u2019s intensity lurks anxiety triggered by his demanding father, who also once saw football as his ticket out of the council estate but remained behind to care for family responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Scene from \u2018Red Pitch\u2019 featuring Ty\u2019Ree Hope Davis, Terrence Griffin, and Angelo Harrington II. Photo by Teresa Castracane Photography.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Family responsibilities loom large beneath the surface for Omz (Angelo Harrington II), who cares for his younger brother and their ailing grandfather and hopes that improvements to the neighborhood mean that \u201cthe lifts will work\u201d and his grandfather won\u2019t need to walk up five floors to their apartment. Behind his bravado and bluster, Harrington\u2019s Omz struggles to carry his family burdens or to ask for help. His pain, anger, and desperation bubble to the surface both quietly (in his reaction to a phone call from home) and more explosively later in the play, in a visceral fight scene choreographed by Casey Kaleba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joey (played by Terrence Griffin in his professional theater debut) stands physically a head taller than his friends and is the most farsighted of the three. Interested in the possibilities and promise of a life outside \u201cthe endz,\u201d Griffin as Joey thinks aloud about his backup plans if football doesn\u2019t work out, and attempts to advise his friends on how to navigate social systems and services as they face the prospect of displacement amid the redevelopment of their neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadir Bey\u2019s scenic design sets the stage for \u201cthe endz\u201d and bookends the red pitch with one goal spray-painted on a graffiti-covered brick wall, and the other goal formed by a rectangular piece of wood. Fencing and scaffolding at each end of the stage evoke the ongoing demolition and construction of the gentrifying neighborhood. The three friends\u2019 shared ritual of slapping the sign on the fence as they enter and exit the red pitch punctuates the play from start to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DJ Potts\u2019 sound design grounds the play in the neighborhood through the rumble of construction vehicles and the chants of community members, while also bringing the boys\u2019 aspirations to life with Premier League announcers and cheering stadium crowds in dream sequences choreographed by Siani Nicole. The musical choices, including during a party that Bilal, Joey, and Omz attend just days before their big tryout, left audience members asking for a Spotify soundtrack after the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the design elements and the individual performances shine in Olney\u2019s production of Red Pitch<\/em>, the interaction between the three characters allows the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts, as Bilal, Joey, and Omz spar on and off the pitch, call one another out on their bullshit, hype each other up, and have each other\u2019s backs in a believable \u2014 and enjoyable \u2014 portrayal of teenage male friendship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a time when many men of all ages on both sides of the pond struggle to maintain close friendships<\/a>, Red Pitch<\/em> and its characters resonate deeply. If Olney\u2019s packed house on opening night is any indication, American audiences will be rooting for Red Pitch<\/em> \u2014 and for the friendships at its heart \u2014 from opening kickoff to the final whistle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running Time: 90 minutes, without intermission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red Pitch\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/a>is now EXTENDED through October 26, 2025, in the Mulitz-Gudelsky Theater Lab at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Rd, Olney, MD. Regular performances are Wednesday\u2014Saturday at 7:30 pm, with matinees on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 1:30 pm. Tickets ($47\u2014$95) can be purchased online<\/strong><\/a>, by calling the box office at 301-924-3400, or through TodayTix.<\/strong><\/a> Discounts for groups, seniors, teachers, active military, first responders, and students are available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The digital program for Red Pitch<\/em> is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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