The Paper Man

In 1938, Matthias Sindelar captains the Austrian football team to victory over East Germany, in stark defiance of a Nazi order that the game should be drawn. A few months later, Sindelar and his girlfriend are found dead in their apartment.

In 2018, middle aged, white British, football addict-in-recovery Lee Simpson wants answers. He decides to make a show. A show about football, about rebellion, about standing up to fascism. And at its heart, the myth of the man who ridiculed the Third Reich.

Yet when Lee hires four women to make the show with him, they decide they don’t want to perform (yet) another play about a “heroic”, dead, white man. So what stories do we tell? And who gets to tell them? Is Sindelar an inspirational little guy or yet another man and his ego?

In a paper world of light and shadow, violence and dance, five performers work together on what sets them apart…

‘A wickedly funny surge of energy.’

Exeunt

Improbable are ‘one of the brilliant faces of British theatre’ (The Observer) and one of the UK’s most innovative and acclaimed theatre companies. Recent productions include Still No Idea (★★★★ ‘Combines comedy, honesty and protest to distinctive effect’ – The Guardian) and Lost Without Words (★★★★ ‘A bold theatrical experiment’ – The Stage).

Alongside Improbable co-Artistic Director Lee Simpson, the show features: Vera Chok (The Outsider – Print Room and as a writer contributing to The Good Immigrant); Jess Mabel Jones  (Beauty and the Beast – Young Vic and has also been seen in Touretteshero in the multi-award-winning Backstage In Biscuit Land); Keziah Joseph  (Dick Whittington – Lyric Hammersmith), and Adrienne Quartly (sound design and composition for Queen Margaret – Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester.)

A Norfolk & Norwich Festival, La Strada, Graz and Soho Theatre co-commission. Co-produced with Norwich & Norfolk Festival.
Supported by Cockayne – Grants for the Arts and the London Community Foundation.

Note: the performance runs straight through with no interval

• This production contains references to physical violence and self harm.
• It also includes references to Nazism, racism and the Holocaust.
• The production features loud sounds and strobe lighting.

Dialogue Theatre Club, 28 Feb
Dialogue Theatre Club is open to anyone who likes watching theatre and chatting about it too. It’s a bit like a book group, but for plays and performances: you buy your own ticket to see the show, then come to Soho Theatre’s Seminar Room to discuss it with other audience-members. No one involved in making the show is invited, so you can talk freely and all opinions are welcome.

BSL performance: Wed 6 Mar,  Captioned performance: Fri 8 Mar. To book your tickets for either of these, please contact our Box Office team directly, email  box1@sohotheatre.com, or call 0207 478 0100, option 1, or pop in to book in person.