Image credit: Charlie Swinbourne
Written by Chris O’Connor
Directed by Gitika Buttoo
Leeds Playhouse, Courtyard Theatre
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Through It All Together, Chris O’Connor’s tender, funny, and profoundly human new play, scores a heartfelt goal at Leeds Playhouse. Blending the collective high of Marcelo Bielsa’s transformative Leeds United era with the quiet, day-to-day reality of living with dementia, this world premiere directed by Gitika Buttoo is a deeply affecting exploration of love, memory, identity—and how football, of all things, can help us hold onto our sense of Self.
The result is a beautifully calibrated narrative centred on Howard (Reece Dinsdale) and Sue (Shobna Gulati), a long-married Leeds couple whose lives are defined as much by matchdays as they are by memory loss. Their shared devotion to Leeds United—and to each other—becomes a touchstone as Howard’s dementia begins to unravel their sense of normalcy.
But this isn’t a story of despair. O’Connor balances challenge with a deep humanity, never sugar-coating, but never wallowing either. “There are a lot of stories about dementia that focus only on the decline, the hardship… I wanted to show a more nuanced picture.” The ensuing result is a window into gritty, Northern humour and emotional resilience that suggests there are ways to navigate this new life that are not totally bleak and hopeless.
Reece Dinsdale’s portrayal of Howard is all the more moving for its subtlety. He captures the erratic rhythms of memory loss with clarity and compassion, avoiding caricature in favour of something richer. As the illness slowly progresses there are more post-it notes dotted around the home to ground him as we watch the light in his light in his eyes seem to palpably dim. Shobna Gulati’s Sue is no mere carer—she’s the team captain of this household, full of warmth, exhaustion, fierce loyalty and humour. Together, they embody a partnership that’s far more than caretaking; it’s a testament to shared history. Gulati is wonderfully warm and authentic as a wife facing an uncertain future, but determined to still make new memories with the man she loves.
Excellent supporting roles from Dean Smith and Everal A Walsh flesh out the world outside of the home with energy and wit, from the passionate football pundetry of a wickedly funny podcast to football fans uniting in the pub or on the terraces with unbridled optimism or surly despondency. Natalie Davies is very believable as the daughter whose initial discomfort and awkwardness around her fathers’ diagnosis slowly shifts to something new that has real emotional depth and develops a deeper bond between parent and adult child.
Image credit: Charlie Swinbourne
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