Writer: John Donnelly
Director: Glenn T. Griffin
Reviewer: Christine Stanton
“Match Winning Performances”
4 / 5
Jason and Ade have been playing football together at the same academy since they were kids, and their dreams of becoming fully professional are finally within reach.
It’s the night before their big, first-team European debut, and the pair are fizzing with an equal measure of nerves and excitement as they anticipate the upcoming game. There’s likely only one place available when the contracts get renewed, so both have to fight for their spot on the team, even it means affecting their friendship. Fast-forward twelve years, and the pair are living very different lives. Ade (Josh Hitchman-Pinnock) is a plumber, while Jason (Ben Moxon) is living out his dream of being a world-class footballer. The fateful night that changed their lives many years ago is etched deep into their memories, but can they put the past behind them and reignite their once-close friendship?
The Pearly Queen Theatre is East London’s newest cultural offering and is a brilliantly welcoming, intimate space that brings Donnelly’s script to life with ease. Set in a hotel room for each of the three key scenes, the direction (Glenn T. Griffin) ensures the cast work well in utilising their surroundings and making every bit of both the stage, and the aisle leading up to it, become integrated into their performance. Running at 2 hours, not including the 20 minute interval, it keeps the audience captivated from beginning to end – packed with simmering tension waiting to erupt, emotionally charged conversations and shocking exclamations that draw you into the characters world even further.
Moxon is fantastic as the cocky, but troubled footballer, and showcases the transition as Jason transforms from young and carefree, to paranoid and calculated, the price of fame having chipped away at him after many successful years on the pitch. Hitchman-Pinnock offers a glimpse of what could have been, had Jason not made the team, and his calm, settled, caring persona elicits a great deal of sympathy and likeability. The pair have great chemistry, the mental battle between the athletic, hyper-masculine personas the world expect to see, combined with their homoerotic flirtations when they let their guards down is extremely well done. Charlie Hammerson as Harry; the eager barman gives a comedic performance, and helps to simultaneously build and break the tension between Jason and Ade.
The second hotel room, in the middle of the show, takes a completely different direction to the rest of the narrative. While the first is Jason and Ade as young teenagers, and the third, final hotel room being their reunion after many years, the second features Jason at the height of his career, not knowing who to trust, and taking desperate measures to fight tabloid rumours about his sexuality by inviting a local table dancer, Lyndsey (Eliza Shea) back to his room for the evening. Shea is phenomenal – her feisty, no-nonsense attitude is fabulously entertaining, wonderfully likeable, she hits every comedic cue with ease, completely relaxed and in her element on stage. Shea and Moxon’s characters engage in a bit of power play, each never relenting, and their believable chemistry creates a brilliantly charged atmosphere that ends the first act with a bang.
With this being The Pearly Queen Theatre’s second show, it’s exciting to see how the venue will evolve over time – if future productions are even half as good as this revival of The Pass, then it will have a very successful future ahead of it!
Runs until 3rd October 2026
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