My family isn’t really a big football family, or at least we aren't anymore, not after Hillsborough.  We are Evertonians, but Hillsborough still affected us.

So you can imagine the trepidation I felt when offered the role of mum. I didn’t know how I was going to find the character, or tell her story as authentically as possible. I needn't have worried. our cast is fantastic, our director wonderful,  and Shaun’s words were a beautiful inspiration. I am so grateful that Shaun allowed us to take inspiration from his original book and develop the script together telling the story of a family devastated by the events of Hillsborough and the immediate aftermath.

As an actor you always bond with your cast regardless of the project but this was something else, we became like family, and I credit Zara our director for this. She allowed us to find that family dynamic, had us improvise scenes, some of which made it to the final script, that allowed us to find the relationships between the characters. As we did this, the story and our roles, took on new life, and it became easier to find the truth of each scene, and how our characters would feel and behave. 

The characters and their story became more and more relatable to each of us, with personal stories about our own families making their way into the script.  We found that we all had our own connection to the tragedy of Hillsborough not just as scousers, blues or reds, but as individuals. It’s these experiences that the audience see on stage through how we portray this fictional family and their love, loss and grief.

We wanted to bring the audience into the story, and involve them in something that was so familiar to us all. I never expected the reception we received.

On stage, the energy of the audience was palpable. We became aware of all that they were feeling. We heard the laughter, the tears, and the absolute silence. Telling us on stage that the audience were just as connected to the story as we were.

The applause was deafening, standing ovations, and hugs from people we had never met afterwards. I am overwhelmed with the praise we received, that we still receive months later. People are still talking about Hillsborough: One boys story of a tragedy.  This makes me so excited to take the show to a bigger, new audience. To have them share the story of this family, their highs, lows, love, tragedy and grief. A story experienced by too many families after Hillsborough.

My hope is that by getting the story out there, having as many people as possible see the show, it will help further Shaun’s mission of getting his book in more schools to educate the next generation on Hillsborough so that tragedies like this don’t happen again, and put an end to tragedy chanting at football matches.