Damned fine anti-hero

Passionate and powerful look at complex Clough

Dirty Leeds United.’ that was Brian Clough’s take on the side he took over in 1974 for what proved to be the most disastrous 44 days of his managerial career.

His appointment to the Elland road hot seat was surprising as he viewed Leeds as a team of win-at-all costs ‘cheats’.

He loathed the team almost as much as he did Don revie, the man who fashioned them.

‘His bastard sons,’ he calls them here. if Leeds was the house that Don built, then Clough was determined to take it apart brick by brick and reshape it in his own image – to ‘win better’ without ‘dossiers and documents’ but ‘flair’ and ‘honesty’.

it was not to be and, 44 days into his tenure, with only one win under his belt, he was sacked. this short but not so sweet period in charismatic Clough’s life – juxtaposed with his glory days at Derby County alongside sidekick Peter taylor – formed the basis for David Peace’s riveting novel the Damned United.

the novel has been adapted for the stage by Anders Lustgarten for the Leeds-based red Ladder theatre Company, albeit trimmed down at the Fringe from the original production that premiered last year.

it’s an enjoyable, solid enough production, played out against a sheet of corrugated plastic that is used as the projection backdrop for the tV showdown between revie and Clough that serves as the denouement for both book and play.

Clough and taylor are excellently played by Luke Dickson and David Chafer, with James Smelt filling in the blanks as various chairmen and club staff.

Wisely opting to forego an impression of Clough, Dickson turns in a powerful, nuanced portrait of a complex, flawed leader.

We also see a more vulnerable side of the media darling full of bombastic swagger – Clough, whisky in hand, is plagued by doubts and fears as well as selfbelief. the death of his mother also takes its toll. ‘the end of everything good,’ he states. ‘the beginning of everything bad.’

yet while the repetitions and rhythms of Peace’s prose are captured here, the dual timeline flashbacks that worked on the page don’t transfer to the stage half so well, with the piece frustratingly disorientating.

Pleasance Courtyard until Aug 28 Edinburgh Special – Pages 60-61