The action is already underway as audiences enter the small studio for Justice Ezi's debut play Last Goal Wins at Broadway, Catford. Charlton Athletic's Victory and Youssef, in Nigeria to try out for the last two spots on the country's World Cup squad, are doing drills while their coach, played by a buoyant Jerome Ngonadi, collars audience members to take penalties. The production does quite the opposite of missing spectacularly.
A Debut Play with Ambitious Questions
Part of the Ryan Calais Cameron season, where the Olivier-nominated playwright selected three early-career Black and Global Majority writers to receive financial backing and mentorship, Ezi's work asks expansive questions about racism, belonging, and the sometimes-shadowy business of sport. These themes are explored through the experiences of three men and, in particular, their relationships to their Nigerian heritage.
Striker Victory, played by a heartbreakingly frantic Benjamin Akintuyosi, sees this as his last chance to play for the country he grew up in and change his young family's life. Alexander Lobo Moreno's subtly conflicted goalkeeper Youssef, raised in England, is outwardly more concerned with his social media following, his aloof ex-footballer dad, and a potential offer from team Morocco, his mother's birth country. When Michael, a wealthy white Arsenal star who left Nigeria at five, unexpectedly joins the trial, discussions of who deserves a place begin to revolve as much around who can speak Igbo or cook pounded yam as who can score or save a winning shot. Cameron Forrest plays Michael with the breezy optimism of privilege.
Well-Paced, Funny, and Nail-Biting
Ezi's script is well-paced and plotted, if a little unwieldy towards the end, and also extremely funny. Michael is described as a "skinny, flat white," there are bleakly comic swipes at England's racist fans, and many a joke rooted in the joys of Nigerian culture. The depiction of gameplay is bold, and director Kalungi Ssebandeke does remarkably in the small space with the help of excellent movement work by Gabrielle Nimo. The final selection match, accompanied by pulse-racing sound and lighting, and two suspended goals which turn green when someone scores, is genuinely nail-biting.
No Neat Answers
Ezi doesn't leave us with neat answers. Even the morally questionable hiring decisions of Nigeria's assistant manager Zanza Azuka, played with swaggering relish by Kossim Osseni, have arguable merits. And all the better for it; its nuances make this production as challenging and thought-provoking as it is entertaining and poignant. Last Goal Wins runs at Broadway, Catford until 12 July.
