Review: The Corinthian at A Play, A Pie and A Pint, Assembly Roxy

The wildly popular A Play, A Pie and A Pint lunch-hour theatre series returned to Edinburgh this week, packing out the Assembly Roxy with an audience eager for both lunchtime sustenance and powerful drama. Co-presented with Glasgow’s Òran Mór, the latest offering, The Corinthian, arrives at a culturally electric moment. With Scotland’s men’s football team preparing for their historic appearance at the FIFA World Cup, this production tackles the deeply entrenched issues of racism in Scotland and the nation’s complex international footballing legacy.

Written by award-winning Scottish playwright Joe McCann and directed by Martin McCormick, this compelling one-man show resurrects the largely forgotten story of Andrew Watson. On 12 March 1881, Watson captained the Scottish national side to a resounding 6–1 victory over England on English soil. He was also the world’s first Black international footballer. What unfolds across the brisk, hour-long performance is a truncated but entirely uncompromising biography that holds the audience in a tight, emotional grip from the first line to the final whistle.

A High-Stakes Heritage on a Minimalist Stage

At the heart of The Corinthian is the extraordinary duality of Watson’s upbringing. Born into Caribbean privilege, he was the son of a wealthy plantation manager from Orkney and a local British Guianese woman. The narrative charts his transition from the sugar plantations of South America to the grey, chilly streets of Greenock. Despite his family’s immense wealth, Watson quickly learned that the colour of his skin made him an outsider in 19th-century Scotland. The script refuses to soften the blows of this reality, delivering a raw and unflinching look at the systemic racism Watson encountered on the streets and on the pitch.

This heavy, history-rich narrative is brought to life on a remarkably sparse set. The stage dressing relies on simple but effective iconography: a pair of goalposts, floodlights, a football, a hat, and a few sweaters. Hanging prominently in the background is a solitary blue jersey. From the moment the audience sits down, this looming piece of fabric is instantly clocked as the iconic Scottish football top, a visual promise of the sporting glory and personal tribulation to come.

A Masterclass Solo Debut

The immense challenge of carrying this entire historical epic alone on stage falls to Dayton Mungai. Making his professional debut and a student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Mungai delivers a superstar performance that marks him out as an incredible talent. He captures Watson’s journey with a beautiful evolution of physical presence, shifting effortlessly from the wide-eyed innocence of a young boy discovering the game to the rigid, fierce determination of a man qualifying for Queen’s Park Football Club and ultimately captaining his country.

Mungai’s accent work is nothing short of superb. He transitions seamlessly between a rugged Orkney dialect, rich Caribbean tones, standard West-Central Scottish, and impeccable English, never losing the clarity of his delivery. His charisma is on-the-ball, and the audience reacts on demand. The production moves at a breathless pace, forcing Mungai to navigate extreme emotional whiplash. He steers the audience through the soaring highs of legendary sporting triumphs, only to drop them instantly into the devastating lows of family tragedy and the vile racism that shadowed Watson’s every success.

Overall

The Corinthian is an essential, gripping piece of contemporary Scottish theatre that uncovers a crucial historical figure who should never have been erased from the sporting consciousness. Dayton Mungai’s breathtaking solo performance commands complete attention for the entirety of its hour-long running time, earning every bit of the enthusiastic standing ovation it received at the Assembly Roxy. It is a powerful, beautifully executed tribute that cements Andrew Watson’s legacy not just as a footballing pioneer, but as the ultimate Scottish underdog.