Hareet Deol and Jay Varsani excel in a highly physical adaptation of Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual, streamed online from Curve Leicester
“Break the cycle. Find what unites us. It ain’t rocket science.”
Just a quickie for this, a show from Curve Leicester which is being streamed for the next week. Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual is an interpretation of Riaz Khan’s book about his experience as a football hooligan in the 1980s which adaptor Dougal Irvine and director Nikolai Foster have reworked into a two-hander which bursts off the stage with enough energy to reach your screen.
Hareet Deol and Jay Varsani play brothers Riaz and Suf who, in their search for a sense of belonging, wind up in the tight-knit community of Leicester City’s Baby Squad, a multicultural gang who more than squared up to the threat of far-right racism. And as they also take on the tens of other roles in the story with lightning quick precision, there’s a powerful tale of a particular shade of British masculinity that has shaped so much of the attitudes that still prevail in dark corners today. It’s well worth the watch over the coming weeks.
Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes
Photo: Ellie Kurttz
Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual is available to watch until Friday 24th April
If you’ve watched Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual, please consider making a donation to Curve by clicking here.
