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Barracking for the Umpire by Andrea Gibbs

From the wickedly funny mind of comedienne Andrea Gibbs (ABC Weekend presenter, Barefaced Stories) comes Barracking for the Umpire.

The Castle meets The Club in this original family drama that asks us: what are we willing to sacrifice for the great game?

Doug Williams is the greatest footballer Donnybrook has ever known. Hard as flint. Salt of the earth.

DelveenWilliams:

His wife has been by his side for years, through head knock after head knock. Back in the day, Doug Williams took all the hard knocks the game could dish out – but got up and played on regardless. the stretcher as an insult. Great courage

The club want to honour Doug with a Lifetime Achievement award, so the kids are all flying home to join the celebration. Ben, a rising AFL star, and Mena, an ambitious sports journalist, are reunited with their parents and eldest sister Charaine, who lives in town and has just broken up with Tom, who runs the local Toastmasters group, as well as the local footy club.

There’s never a dull moment when the Williams’ family gets together. We quickly grow to love these people as they gather for Doug’s big day. But we begin to feel an undercurrent. Something’s not quite right with Doug…The sure hands of this once great player are starting to fumble the ball. The siblings begin to understand why Charaine lost her passion for football as they witness the decline of their father’s health due to repeated head injuries from the game.

Andrea witnessed the hard-knocks of football firsthand when her father’s injuries meant he put the football down to become an umpire.

Andrea:

According to Mum would follow him to all his games, and cheer him on. Mum was the only one who’d be out there barracking for the umpire. This was a longstanding joke in their family. She adds, Barracking for the Umpire is not simply a play about footy – it is about family and connection. It is about identity and love. And it is about the sacrifices people make on both sides of the fence.

Barracking for the Umpire tackles blokes and their vulnerability, the fragility of the human body, and the impacts of brain injury on ourselves, our family, and our community. It is funny, sad, urgent and timely. The discussion about CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) resulting from football concussions is a topical one, and the play explores the effects of this debilitating condition on the heart of a loving family. Barracking for the Umpireinvestigates the culture of football, family and the sacrifices made for the Great Australian Game.

This story will resonate with every AFL fan, player, and parent.

Clare Watson Director:

Up there Cazaly, in there and fight…I am a huge Andrea Gibbs fan and with this play, she kicks it out of the park, literally. Reading early drafts of the script the team sat around the table, first laughing and then crying. This family is familiar and loveable…Fight like the devil, the crowd’s on your side.

Inspired by real events and her family’s passion for football Barracking for the Umpire is Andrea’s debut play, commissioned by Black Swan State Theatre Company, and supported by the Malcolm Robertson Foundation and City of Perth as part of the Funny Girl initiative.

CAST Michael Abercromby: