The playwright James Graham has paid tribute to the outgoing England football manager Gareth Southgate, calling him a figure who was able to unite the country during a political era where “division and toxicity” have ruled public life.
Graham who is re-writing Dear England, his play about Southgate and the England football team after their Euro 2024 final defeat, said the departing manager had given him a “tragic” and “English ending” which is painful rather than triumphant.
“There’s not been a greater proof of concept in terms of an institutional reset in our public life in terms of the one that he delivered,” said Graham. “It just has worked on all the measurable elements except for the tiny thing about them winning the trophy.”
“He was everything we didn’t have in our politics at that time: a long-term plan, a genuine desire to unite people around a particular project, rather than divide people and cause upset and pain and toxicity.”
Graham admitted that as a dramatist he was happy because the story has definitively ended and “there is a peace in that” and clarity.
He said: “The result in the final lends itself to a moving and dare I say it more English kind of ending where pain is easier to process than victory because most of us in our lives haven’t ever experienced winning.”
Graham, open admirer of Southgate, said the new ending of the play needed to capture the venom and vitriol that was directed at the ex-England boss as well as the last-minute drama of his team’s stuttering run to the final.
“It’s everyone’s football team and it makes the play more interesting to reflect all those views, including the misplaced – in my opinion – anger, hatred and negativity,” he said. “The play needs to own that noise and think about why we do that.
“That image of walking up to a stand of fans who were throwing beers at him and he still did that. It is the most Southgatian image, to not avoid it, to look them in the eye and acknowledge what’s going on and stay strong. My admiration for him only grows in those situations.”
Graham said he was disappointed with the way the team played but more so the return of negativity around England, which was reminiscent of less successful eras and seemed to make the situation worse.
“We know that cycle exists, yet we still can’t help ourselves,” he said. “I was disappointed to see the fear come back and the joy disappear from their playing style. It went. I was sad and confused about that. That was the stuff I thought we’d solved, the vibes stuff.”
Graham is also bringing his play Punch to London after it had a successful run in his home town this year.
Punch tells the real-life story of Jacob Dunne, a Nottingham man who accidentally killed a 28-year-old trainee paramedic after throwing a single punch.
Described as “a powerful study of problematic young masculinity that defines itself through swagger, reputation and recreational violence” by the Guardian, the play has earned a transfer to the Young Vic in March 2025.
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Graham’s play has also travelled beyond the theatre world. A judge in Chesterfield referred to the play while sentencing a man who knocked another man unconscious, saying “people need to watch” it to understand the consequences of street violence.
He said: “You never plan for that kind of stuff but you hope it’ll cut through beyond the arts pages and the theatre crowd and open up a wider discussion.”
Graham invited the rime minister, Keir Starmer, and his family to watch Dear England during its West End run, and believes the prime minister has a “real passion for wide access to arts and education”.
He added that Labour leadership should not be embarrassed to admit they like plays in order to help dispel the myth that the arts are not for working-class people.
Graham said that over the last decade Labour has seemed cautious about embracing the arts for fear of seeming too urbane and detached from the voting public.
“Previous iterations of the Labour party have been a bit nervous about owning up to the fact that they like to see a play or a show, it’s not elitist and something to worry about,” he said.
“The ‘red wall’ isn’t going to rebel if you’re seen in a theatre.”