Joseph Fiennes will play England football manager Gareth Southgate in New Play DEAR ENGLAND in London

Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale, Shakespeare in love) has signed on to play England men’s soccer manager Gareth Southgate in a new game coming to London titled Dear England. Playwright James Graham (Sherwood) wrote the play and told the BBC in a new interview that the production will chronicle the “gentle revolution” in the England football club since Southgate took charge.

Graham told BBC News:

“I think what has happened to the England men’s soccer team over the past six years has been extraordinarily extraordinary. He’s humming in the background, but we’re only now really starting to understand Gareth’s sweet revolution.

British theater director Rupert Goold he will direct the play, which National Theater artistic director Rufus Norris described as “a captivating examination into the complex psychology of the much-loved beautiful play”.

Southgate, a former England international, was appointed England manager in 2016, a period which Graham says was framed by an “existential crisis over why we are missing out” and the country’s polarizing Brexit.

The play will debut at the National Theater in June and comes six months after England were knocked out in the quarter-finals of the World Cup by France, with striker Harry Kane missing a late penalty. After the tournament, Southgate said he would continue as England manager until after Euro 2024.

Graham also said of the project:

“It’s great to write a story that’s not finished yet. My experience of watching England come out of this last World Cup, was a multitude of mixed feelings when sitting there in the pub. None of my friends around me knew I was writing this play so I think they were wondering why I sat silently staring at my pint trying to make sense of it all.

Sounds like a big role for Fiennes. Hopefully, the show will get a TV or film adaptation so that a wider audience can see this story as well.

via: Deadline