Football is coming home... to Alnwick

The Giant Killers tells the true story of Darwen FC, the first team of working-class men to compete in the F.A. Cup. In the early years of association football, the sport was exclusively for wealthy upper-class gentleman - the dominant team at the time were The Old Etonians. When Darwen caused the first ever cup shock (and became known as The Giant Killers) the two teams were pitted against each other in the Quarter Finals.

The play has been written by husband a wife team Andrew and Eve Pearson-Wright and was first performed at the Edinburgh festival in 2017, receiving multiple 5 star reviews and standing ovations. This will be it's second tour but the first time it's visited Northumberland.

When The Giant Killers was first performed it was the first ever dramatization of the story, but it may sound familiar as Netflix produced their own version in 2020 titled The English Game. But according to Andrew the two are quite different.

"They left out a lot of the most historically interesting stuff and made The Old Etonians a very sympathetic group of characters, when in reality they were ruthless people who really despised these upstarts competing with them. It's a fascinating story but I think people respond more to this version”.

And it's not just for football fans either, the backdrop to these matches was that the North West (where Darwen are from) had been decimated by the cotton famine and the workers were on the verge of rioting, there was a real possibility that these matches might spark a revolution.

The play tells the story over 90 minutes, just like a real match and in some venues has sparked real life cheers from the audience as goals fly in.

The Giant Killers is at The Alnwick Playhouse on the 2nd and 3rd of July - with a 7.30pm "Kick Off" on Tuesday the 2nd and a 2pm start on the 3rd.