Exploring the beautiful game’s ugly side, the award-winning hit show Why I Stuck a Flare Up my Ar*e for England will play its last UK show at the Garrick Theatre on Sunday 21st June.
Inspired by the England fan who went viral for putting a lit flare in his buttocks before the European Football Championships Final in 2021, the show tells the story of die-hard football fanatic Billy who eats, sleeps, and breathes the sport alongside his best mate Adam. But what begins as a shared passion quickly spirals into something more dangerous when they fall in with a new crowd. Looking at the darker underbelly of football culture, what follows is a funny, raw and honest look at tribalism, toxic masculinity, and the desperate search for a place to belong, timely ahead of the Men’s Football World Cup and the fifth anniversary of the European Football Championships.
Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Ar*e for England premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 and returned in 2024 and 2025 for successive sell-out runs. The show has since toured across the UK including London runs at Southwark Playhouse, Wiltons Music Hall and Underbelly as well as internationally in Australia, winning the Holden Street Theatres Award, the Best Theatre & Physical Theatre Award at Adelaide Fringe, Best Theatre & Performance at Perth Fringe World, and an Offie Award. Football icon Chris Kamara and TV presenter Ben Shephard have lent their voices to the show as radio presenters. The play was published by Methuen Drama in 2025. Following the final date at the Garrick, the show will travel over to New York as part of Soho Playhouse’s Fringe Encore Series from 8-18 July.
Alex and director Sean Turner said, “We’re beyond thrilled to announce that our little one-man football show, which previewed at the Old Red Lion pub theatre before playing a 50-seater hotel conference room at the Edinburgh Fringe back in 2023, has made it to the West End. It genuinely feels like a dream come true. We’re so thankful to everyone who has supported, worked on and been part of the show over the last few years. Finishing the show in the West End and then Off-Broadway alongside the World Cup was never part of the plan, and we’re incredibly grateful for this opportunity. We can’t wait to set off one final flare’’
Alex Hill is a writer, actor and producer from Egham, England. He trained at Arts Educational Schools, graduating in 2022. Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Ar*e For England is his debut play. Other acting credits include Flashbang (2026) at Greenwich Theatre & UK Tour, the music video for Chicane’s Summer In E Major (2023), and the short film Daylight Follows (2023). Other writing includes the short film Occasionally United (ArtsEd, 2023).
Director of the show Sean Turner was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Trinity Theatre in Tunbridge Wells from 2021 – 2023. He trained at ALRA, East 15 and in Devising with Complicité. He is responsible for unearthing the script of Arthur Miller’s first play, No Villain, which he directed at the Old Red Lion, later transferring to Trafalgar Studios 2. Sean was previously Associate Director on the West End and UK Touring productions of the hit comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, and directed replica productions across the Globe.
Nimax Theatres was formed in 2005 when Nica Burns and Max Weitzenhoffer bought four West End playhouses from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Theatres the Apollo, Duchess, Garrick, and Lyric theatres. The name Nimax is a portmanteau of their two names. Nimax then bought Weitzenhoffer’s Vaudeville theatre and in 2012, the magnificent Palace theatre. The theatres have a combined capacity of over 5,700 seats and in addition to hosting some of the UK’s most critically acclaimed plays and musicals, present a busy and varied programme of comedy, concerts and children’s theatre. Nimax Theatres has housed notable and award-winning productions over its 20-year history and currently houses some of the West End’s favourite shows; from long-running classics like the ground-breaking, two part play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre and The Play That Goes Wrong, recently celebrating 10 years at the Duchess theatre, to the Tony and Olivier award-winning Hadestown and SIX, as well as nurturing new British writing with Ryan Calais Cameron (For Black Boys… and Retrograde). In Autumn 2022, Nica Burns announced the opening of @sohoplace, the first purpose-built, fully accessible West End theatre in 50 years. The venue is owned by Nica and operated by Nimax Theatres.
