FOOTBALL fans can experience the chaos of managerial legend Brian Clough’s tumultuous reign at Leeds United, courtesy of an acclaimed production playing the Brewery next week.

Staged at the Kendal arts centre on Friday, November 2 (8pm), Red Ladder Theatre's The Damned United, follows the enfant terrible of British football, as he tries to redeem his career and reputation by winning the European Cup with his new team, Leeds United - a team he has openly despised for years.

The story, adapted from the hit novel by David Peace, was also turned into a hit film of the same name starring Michael Sheen and provides an unforgettable insight into the tortured mind of a genius and brings to life the beauty and brutality of football.

A sell-out success when it received its world premiere in 2016, this is the first time the play has embarked on a national tour featuring a stripped-back new staging which brings audiences up-close to the sweat, fury and power-struggles from pitch-side and inside the flawed but brilliant mind of 'Old Big 'ed'.

The rights for The Damned were donated by David Peace to Red Ladder for £3.68 - a penny for each page in the novel - as a show of support for the Leeds-based radical theatre company when it received a 100 per cent cut to its Arts Council funding.

Red Ladder's artistic director Rod Dixon, said that playwright Anders Lustgarten’s adaptation doesn’t just chart the 44 days of Brian Clough’s managerial disaster at Leeds United. He added: "It shows the vulnerability of friendship, the futility of ambition - and offers a portrayal of a tortured genius slamming up against his limits. The Damned United is Shakespearean in its tragedy."

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