Stand or Fall - a piece of theatre that means everything to Albion fans

Stand or Fall – The Play opens at the Theatre Royal tonight. Nick Szczepanik caught up with lifelong Albion fan Mark Brailsford about his production and what fans can expect.

Nick Szczepanik

2026-09-23T10:45+01:00

Mark Brailsford, left, and the cast of Stand or Fall, prepare for curtain up at the Theatre Royal on Wednesday. 📷James Boardman

Tonight the curtain goes up on Stand or Fall – The Play, celebrating 125 years of the Albion, at the Theatre Royal from Wednesday 23 September to Saturday 26 September.

This retelling of recent Albion history is the brainchild of Mark Brailsford, who was in another Seagulls-based stage show, Brighton ’Til I Die, which was first produced in 2001 and revived in 2011, and described at the time by The Argus as a mixture of pantomime and fairytale.

It is the perfect antidote to the withdrawal symptoms we will all suffer with no Albion games until the trip to Sunderland on October 10, thanks to the extended international break.

“Stand or Fall is the story of the fans’ experience of the time from the last day at the Goldstone through to qualifying for Europe, and the journey that we've all been on,” Mark explained. “But it is that journey seen through the eyes of characters that we all recognise: parents, friends, grandchildren, children.

“It’s the story of their history, of how they experienced the period from the troubles through to how we ended up in the Premier League and playing in Europe.

“It starts off with a father, a son and a grandson. This family comes together with other friends, and there's a love story as well involving one of the protagonists, Danny, who's the grandson, who grows up around all the history of the Albion.

Mark Brailsford was in another Seagulls-based stage show, Brighton ’Til I Die, which was first produced in 2001 and revived in 2011. 📷James Boardman

“We show the great moments in the past, and some of the not-so-great moments of the past, and how they go through the agonies and ecstasies that we all experience watching the Albion. No more agonies these days, though!

“So it's a nod to that, and you can also think of it as kind of picking up the story from where Brighton ’Til I Die left off.”

As well as the fictional characters, fans will recognise some heroes and villains of recent Albion history. Mark said: “There is somebody playing Dick Knight, and there's also somebody playing the villain, Mr Bill Archer – me. I'll have to duck!

“And there's also a lot of comedy cameo appearances by various characters. There are eight parts that I'm playing, so I'm coming on and off and doing the comedy element like I did in Brighton ’Til I Die.

“And my script consultant is, in fact, Paul Hodson, who co-wrote Brighton ’Til I Die with Dave Blake. So I’ve got an expert additional eye that's helped me point up a couple of things that have been really helpful. And he's wonderful to have on board to advise me. It's like being a young coach of a team and having the senior manager, who's done it all, coming in and just doing a few pointers. He's that.”

Many fans will know that Mark was entertaining us long before Brighton ’Til I Die, with his topical, satirical and award-winning revue The Treason Show a mainstay of the city’s comedy scene. So expect plenty of jokes among the emotional moments.

“If you had said to us all in the 1970s and 1980s that this is what the Albion would do and how far we would go, we would have laughed,” Mark said. “So there's a lot of dream fulfillment to it, and also a lot of laughs. We're a comedy show originally, The Treason Show, so we've added The Treason Show elements.

Mark Brailsford and some of the cast ahead of Stand or Fall opening night on Wednesday 23 September at Brighton's Theatre Royal. 📷James Boardman

“So we've got that element of the fun of it. There's a lot of jokes, some in-jokes, mostly not. But it's not just about football, either. It's also about family and home and belonging and the sense of being part of something bigger than ourselves.

“That is something these days that is quite relevant, I think, especially with AI and everything depersonalised so much now. I really think that this experience of being in a theatre with like-minded people and all connected through blue and white will be a quite lovely, cathartic experience. So 23 to 26 of September, and there's a matinee on the Saturday afternoon, as you'd expect, but there's a 2.30 kick-off for that one.”

The cast of seven is as strong as an Albion Premier League side. “I've got actors from various Shakespeare plays that I've directed, who bring their gravitas to it,” Mark said. “It includes Paul Moriarty, who some people might know from EastEnders, where he played George, who was Barbara Windsor's love interest, and he was in The Gentle Touch in the 80s.

“He's pretty well-known and he is a fantastic actor. I've directed him in a couple of my Shakespeare plays, and he is amazing. I love working with Paul, and luckily he seems to enjoy working with me as well, so we've got a very, very wonderful actor to come and see.”

“An,d of course, it's taking place in the sumptuous environs of the Theatre Royal, which is a night out in itself, because it's a beautiful building, a beautiful place to go and watch a piece of theatre that means everything, hopefully, to people who follow the Albion. It's the Amex of the theatre world.”