User:Skeowsha/Old Big 'Ead in The Spirit of the Man

Old Big 'Ead in the Spirit of the Man
Written by	Stephen Lowe
Date premiered	2005
Place premiered	Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham England
Original language	English
Subject	Brian Clough comes back from the dead, to inspire a playwright
Genre	Drama
Setting	??; Nottingham

Old Big 'Ead in The Spirit of the Man (play)

Old Big 'Ead in the Spirit of the Man is a play by English playwright Stephen Lowe (playwright).

The play opened at the Nottingham Playhouse on 7 June 2005, directed by Alan Dossor. The same production was revived in 2006 at the Nottingham Playhouse, and it then toured nationally, to...

Commissioned by the Nottingham Playhouse within weeks / only seven weeks after the death of Brian Clough, Lowe's play

Plot and themes

Recently deceased, Brian Clough finds himself in the changing rooms in heaven, along with William Booth, D.H. Lawrence and Lord Byron (Robin Hood is in the shower.) He is now part of the male section of the East Midlands Inspirational Spirits Division, who are on call to inspire the living, as and when required. Unlike his new colleagues - D H Lawrence "When feminism was in full swing nobody called me for twenty years" - Brian is convinced he won't be on the bench for long, "...no offence, but men can go a fair time without sex, politics or religion but they can hardly get through the month of August without a game of footie."

In this play, Lowe treats many of his lifelong passions - DH Lawrence, Nottingham Forest - and even his own profession at times with a joyous irreverence:

Jimmy: I'm a playwright, I write plays.
Brian: (beat) Like Ernie Wise?
Jimmy: To be honest, I'm not that good.

But there is also great seriousness in the play, as when - in one of the turning points of the play, one of Jimmy's actors challenges him about the planned ending of his play

But through it all, the irrepressible comic spirit of Brian Clough bursts through the play: (Booth quote; Clough popping up in Jimmy's bed; at the end, singing My Way, with his head floating above the Notts Forest stadium)

Reception

"This is that rare thing, an original piece of local theatre, an antidote to the cloning of Britain's cities." Susannah Clapp

(Add picture of script cover?) - See Amazon.

Sources

• Old Big 'Ead in the Spirit of the Man, by Stephen Lowe. London, Methuen, 2005.
• Clough takes centre stage again in new drama - Guardian, 5 November 2004.
• www.soccer24-7.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-76605.html
• The Afterlife of Brian, Alfred Hickling. The Guardian, 1 June 2005
• Forest's Grump. Review of Old Big 'Ead, by Susannah Clapp - Observer, 12 June 2005.

External links

• Old Big 'Ead script, on Amazon.
• Clough takes centre stage again in new drama. Guardian, 5 November 2004.
• Soccer24-7 - football talkboard buzzing with talk of the play.
• Review on British Theatre Guide
• Review of the play, Susannah Clapp. Tne Observer, 12 June 2005.
• The Afterlife of Brian, Alfred Hickling. The Guardian, 1 June 2005.
• Pages about The Spirit of the Man on Tribute website to Brian Clough.
• Interview on Left Lion website.