The Ghost of White Hart Lane  (Underbelly, The Dairy Room) is ostensibly a story about football and indeed is about footballers but, as the man in the queue behind me said, ‘Plays about football usually use football as the medium to talk about something else really’. And how right he was in this instance.
This is a one-man show, brilliantly performed by Cal Newman, telling the story of father and son footballers John and Robert White, both of whom played for Spurs. So far so straightforward, but John was struck by lightning and died when he was only 27 and Robert was only 5 months old. So the story is as much about loss and grief, not having a father’s guiding hand and ‘not upsetting Mum’. It’s about mental health and the will to win, despite being told, over and over again, that you’re too short, too slight, not good enough. It’s about relationships – real and imagined.
The Ghost of White Hart Lane  IS about football, but it’s about so much more and, though the themes are serious and often moving, there is humour in the story too and Cal Newman does a fabulous job of playing the two parts – father and son – and many of the other characters that bring the story to life. He changes accent almost flawlessly and seemingly at the drop of a hat. He uses gestures and sideways glances which epitomise the individuals, playing female roles with as much authenticity and ease as the male ones.
His only props are changes of clothes, a strip of astroturf, and a battered travelling trunk which, he tells us, has his Dad inside it. He really doesn’t need anything else, as his bravura performance does full justice to the excellent script and heartfelt story. John White was known as the Ghost of White Hart Lane and this is a haunting tale in more ways than one.
Go to see The Ghost of White Hart Lane  if you’re a football fan – English, Scottish, or any other nationality. Go and see it even if you’re not. If you are interested in humanity and human relationships, this is a must-see.
