Ladies and gentlemen, it\u2019s almost time to take your seats. The most compelling West Country drama since Poldark? Friday Night Lights with pasties? Or, if you like, a little dash of Scrumpy & Western? Never let it be said we lack creative enthusiasm out here in the sticks, nor the desire to offer local theatregoers something refreshingly different.<\/p>\n
Welcome, either way, to the world\u2019s most improbable new stage play. How else to summarise a production about the rise of an unflashy Devon rugby club, based on the book Exe Men by \u2013 there\u2019s no easy way to say this \u2013 yours truly. Trust me, watching professional actors rehearse scenes that started life on your own keyboard is a surreal experience.<\/p>\n
Fortunately Exe Men the play \u2013 which opens next week \u2013 has been written by someone with significantly better credentials. Remember the BBC\u2019s brilliant Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes? Detective Gene Hunt firing up the Quattro<\/a>? The show\u2019s co-creator Ashley Pharoah has specialised in TV screenwriting but also loves his rugby and was instantly intrigued when Martin Berry, creative director at Exeter\u2019s Northcott Theatre<\/a>, approached him.<\/p>\n Actor Tim Hudson (left) and the man he plays, Tony Rowe, chair of Exeter Chiefs, during rehearsals for the play Exe Men. Photograph: Samuel Simpson-Pattison<\/p>\n It was brave of them because rugby \u2013 with wonderful exceptions such as Up n\u2019 Under, Stand Up And Fight and Grav<\/a> \u2013 can be a tricky theatrical theme. How do you improve, dramatically speaking, on Exeter going from lower-league anonymity to the champions of Europe<\/a> in little over a decade? Particularly if everyone knows the ending? Or if some people watching don\u2019t really like sport?<\/p>\n The aim, accordingly, has been to highlight the characters who made it happen and the intense regional pride they aroused. And how each can shape the other. Ashley, Martin and myself also share the same conviction: that the south-west deserves a higher national profile.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen was the last time you heard a national newsreader with a West Country accent?\u201d asks Berry rhetorically. If the peninsula does make the news it\u2019s usually because something unpleasant has washed up on a beach or the weather has scared the tourists away.<\/p>\n The lack of Premier League football south-west of Bristol has traditionally been another factor. Which is why it caused a stir when the Chiefs were promoted to English rugby\u2019s top division in 2010. Devon has produced plenty of yachtsmen, swimmers and the occasional Tom Daley but, aside from a few FA Cup victories for Plymouth Argyle<\/a>, not much sustained team sporting success.<\/p>\n Little did anyone guess that, by October 2020, the club would be claiming a domestic and European trophy double. A feat that even Pharoah, as a Bath fan, found extraordinary. \u201cTo go from sidestepping dog poo in a public park to winning the European Cup is amazing. It\u2019s a bigger story, in some ways, than Leicester winning the Premier League<\/a> when you think of where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n Exeter Chiefs lift the trophy after claiming the European Champions Cup in 2020. Photograph: Andrew Boyers\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n The book sought to tell that epic tale through its central pillars. Men such as Rob Baxter who, along with his brother Richie, followed their farmer father John into the \u201cother\u201d family enterprise at the muddy old County Ground. Or the club\u2019s chair, Tony Rowe, whose business nous helped to rescue the club financially. Or Gareth Steenson, the fly-half previously rejected by his native Ulster. \u201cWe were all told we weren\u2019t good enough somewhere else,\u201d says Steenson. \u201cThe strength of the group at the start was that we were from all over the place so we got to know each other\u2019s families.\u201d<\/p>\n While slightly disappointed that Jamie Dornan will not be portraying him \u2013 \u201cHe would have been perfect\u201d \u2013 \u201cSteeno\u201d is now looking forward to seeing how the Chiefs\u2019 once-lively post-match \u201crehydration\u201d sessions are depicted. \u201cSitting on the bus home for three hours gave us time to socialise. I could barely tell you what happened in a lot of games but what I remember most are the social times. I remember we got our first losing bonus point away from home, at Northampton, and celebrating like we\u2019d won with a bonus point.\u201d<\/p>\n All the above, plus the chocolate muffin-loving Kiwi Thomas Waldrom, England\u2019s Jack Nowell and Henry Slade, and Ireland\u2019s Ian Whitten are engagingly played by six professional actors and a 31-strong community ensemble. Berry, though, is aware that on-stage rugby has to be artfully done. \u201cWithout giving away too many spoilers we\u2019re doing it in various ways: lighting and sound, real and imaginary balls. There\u2019s actually a lot you can do to take the audience with you. If we just ask them to sit and watch some footage then we\u2019ve cocked it up.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Cometh the hour, then, for Robert Shaw Cameron, who plays the club\u2019s big chief, Rob Baxter. The former was the dentist Laurence Reeves in Coronation Street but now has a role he can properly sink his teeth into. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve played a \u2018real\u2019 person and you do feel a deep responsibility. There\u2019s a public version of Rob and Tony but there\u2019s a private version as well. The challenge was accessing that private bit. I wanted to explore what people don\u2019t see. When I asked Rob whether he has a confidant he talked about his wife, Jo. That\u2019s something we\u2019ve worked hard to reflect.\u201d<\/p>\n Pharoah has also sought to tease out the human emotions of other pivotal individuals. \u201cIt\u2019s about sport but it\u2019s not really. It\u2019s about people and dreams.\u201d And, when you dig slightly deeper, about male fellowship, too. \u201cOne of the elements is that men aren\u2019t completely crap and can achieve things. I really like that about it. It\u2019s a play about maleness which isn\u2019t necessarily the most fashionable thing to write about at the moment, is it?\u201d<\/p>\n A few of those portrayed may not instantly recognise themselves but in Rowe\u2019s case it is very much the opposite. Tim Hudson, the actor playing him, arguably looks more like Rowe than the chair does himself. \u201cIt is quite strange,\u201d confirms Rowe, now 77 but still bound for South America this week to drive a rally car through Brazil and Guyana. \u201cWhen the people who know me see him they\u2019ll say: \u2018There\u2019s Tony.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n So brace yourselves. The south-west \u2013 and rugby \u2013 is about to enjoy a rare stage closeup. As Cameron puts it: \u201cIn this golden age of telly and Netflix, this is what theatre can still do better than anything else: tell stories that resonate with people and speak to their community.\u201d Will anyone \u201cdo an Exeter\u201d again? Probably not. All the more reason, five years on, to reimagine how the west was won.<\/p>\n