A play exploring the connection between football and national identity will be coming to Warwick Arts Centre this February as part of a 15-venue national tour.

ENG-ER-LAND is written and performed by Warwickshire's own Hannah Kumari, who saw her first football match at Highfield Road in 1996, and follows her own experiences of racism as a football fan.

Directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE, the play blends storytelling, dance and music with '90s nostalgia and tackle's themes of racism, identity politics, lad culture and working-class masculinity.

Hannah, who is originally from Rugby, says: "I wrote ENG-ER-LAND in June 2020 in the wake of the BLM protests and seeing supposed football fans acting in a very aggressive and anti-social way.

"It made me sad and angry that we are still in this position, and I felt compelled to reflect on my own experiences at football matches as a mixed raced teenager growing up in the '90s, and now as a woman."

This timely show, backed by The Football Supporter's Association (The FSA), follows increasing levels of race hate and homophobic abuse, around football matches and across social media – in spite of the season being put on hold for several months due to Covid-19.

Findings by Kick It Out, the English football's equality and inclusion organisation, noted in 2019/20 a 53 per cent increase in reported racial abuse in the professional game between this season and last.

Kick It Out also received 117 reports of abuse based on sexual orientation, nearly double the 60 reported last season.

Hannah adds: "The play is also an exploration of my mixed-race identity, and the idea of Englishness - what does it mean to be English and who gets to define that? I wanted to write a play that was fun and uplifting, whilst also confronting big issues."

Hannah will also be making her debut on Sky Arts in late Spring 2022.

Her new short film, Devi, which she has written and stars in, was commissioned by Sky Arts, Coventry City of Culture, The Space Arts and Shoot Festival.

Originally developed the idea through a commission with The Wardrobe Ensemble, Devi is about a woman of mixed heritage trapped in a cycle of addiction.

See EN-GER-LAND at Warwick Art Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, from Wednesday 16 to Thursday 17 February 2022. Details here.

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