Stage celebration of 125 years of Brighton & Hove Albion

Mark Brailsford offers a humorous take on the lighter side of following your team through thick and thin with his stage celebration of Brighton & Hove Albion.

Stand or Fall – The Play is at the Theatre Royal Brighton from Wednesday-Saturday, September 23-26 in celebration of the club's 125th anniversary.

Stand or Fall follows a group of Albion fans as they ride an emotional rollercoaster, from the last days at the Goldstone via Withdean to Wembley to playing in Europe.

Mark was previously in Brighton ‘Til I Die!, a play, created by Paul Hodson and Dave Blake, to celebrate the club’s centenary. Paul returns as script consultant on the new play.

“The club is celebrating 125 years,” Mark said, “and somebody at the club asked if we would consider doing Brighton ‘Til I Die! again. We last did it in 2011 and it sold out. It was just before we went into The Amex. It was such a high. And it would have been such a massive project to revive it. We came to the conclusion that we could never top what happened then. It was the combination of the battle to survive and going to the new stadium, and the fact is that the story has moved on since then anyway. The club were quite happy that we didn't want to do the play again but someone there asked me if I would write a new play.”

The answer was yes: “It was the combination of my knowledge of the Albion, my past history being a fan since I can remember and the fact that my dad would take me to the games and that his dad took him to the games before that. So I thought I'd write something about a fan's journey. This is nothing to do with the documentary but it's to do with the lyrics of the song Sussex By The Sea.

“I wanted to pull together The Treason Show elements that I'm known for and also the fact that I am artistic director of the Brighton Shakespeare Company. I wanted to put these two companies together and produce a football play and just, as I say, tell the fans’ journey.”

Inevitably Mark draws on his own memories: “I remember the first game at the Amex. Brighton were one-nil down at half-time and it was quite deflating to be one-nil down in this new stadium. I was there with my dad and I was there with Paul Hodson, and I said ‘Surely we can't lose the first game in the new stadium!’ Paul Hodson was totally relaxed. He said ‘Don't worry about it.’ He said ‘We will win 2-1.’ I said ‘How do you know?’ He said ‘It's written in the script.’ It turned out he was absolutely bang on!”

For Mark, however, the play now comes with considerable sadness, following the loss of his dad Fred in July at the age of 80: “He used to take me to all the games. He took me and my brother in the early 70s and it was a wonderful time. We used to share it all with him. When things were going badly, he would always say ‘It's all your fault!’ And then when things were going well, he would always say ‘It's all my fault!’ It became our thing.”

Mark admits the rehearsals have been emotional: “We were hoping that he would hang on long enough. He would have absolutely loved this.”