There may not, as one of the Exeter Chiefs players helpfully points out, be any mountains in all of Devon, but there are certainly hills in Exeter, and once more I found myself being overtaken by all and sundry on a steep incline up to the Northcott Theatre. The exertion was more than rewarded, however, by an extraordinary show about the Exeter Chiefs, a rugby team that well within living memory rose from being an amateur team to a professional outfit in what used to be called Premiership Rugby (officially, at the time of writing, Gallagher PREM Rugby). The story itself may not be groundbreaking – it is, essentially, a triumph over adversity tale, but this production does well to create an exciting and tense atmosphere, whatever your knowledge of rugby union (there’s also something called ‘rugby league’, but that’s another conversation for another time).
On press night, it was evident that a significant proportion of the audience knew a lot about rugby – and the winning trajectory of the Exeter Chiefs – while your reviewer, whose rudimentary knowledge about sport extends to a very vague knowledge of association football and practically nothing at all about rugby football, found himself momentarily discombobulated by the idea that a key match was won by the Chiefs even though they ‘only’, inverted commas mine, had fourteen men. I hasten to add that you need not have read and digested Rugby for Dummies before seeing this show – the salient points are explained (perhaps overexplained if you’re a local rugby fan seeing this show because you’re a local rugby fan).
The Northcott’s capacity is increased for this show, thanks to what isn’t quite ‘on stage’ seating but what the venue has chosen to call the ‘west stand’, with the usual seating configuration effectively in the ‘east stand’ (even if my ticket clearly said ‘stalls’). Accordingly, it’s not quite an ‘in the round’ production, but both stands are largely acknowledged. The show is careful to include some personal elements alongside the inevitable focus on professional sport, particularly the toll of rugby management on Rob Baxter’s (Robert Shaw Cameron) wife, Jo (Micha Colombo) and other family members. There’s never quite an ‘I told you so’ moment, but Rob’s concerns about the impact of taking on such a public role are realised, if not exceeded – success is wonderful in many, many ways but there are always sacrifices involved in achieving something substantial.
The show goes as far back as 1993, when local businessman Tony Rowe (Tim Hudson), still the club’s chairman and chief executive officer at the time of writing, was initially approached with a view to providing sponsorship and concludes with the Heineken Champion Cup Final, at Ashton Gate, Bristol, on 17 October 2020. A considerable number of squad members from that time were name-dropped, with a knowledgeable audience reacting accordingly to players whose contributions to the Chiefs’ success were significant.
Some rugby fans have previously told me about one of the main distinctions between rugby and football being a mutual respect for other clubs and their supporters. Frankly, this wasn’t the case here, with zero attempt to moderate in any way the celebrations in the light of a Chiefs victory. And yet the atmosphere created by this production meant it was easy to understand the stresses and strains – and joys – of supporting a local team, especially one that digs deep in the face of criticism from people who have zero belief that a team from the West Country could ever acquire anything to put in a trophy cabinet.
I suppose one has to try to be unshockable when watching a show like this, which provides a no-holds-barred account of what goes on behind closed doors (and I don’t just mean the matches played without an audience during the pandemic). Exe Men, for me, was even better than the National Theatre’s production of Dear England, not least because the Chiefs actually won some silverware, and also because the sense of community and belonging was incredibly palpable. The core cast is supported by thirty-one supernumeraries (or, as the venue calls them, ‘community cast’), all of whom helped to provide, within a fairly limited stage space, the sense of fifteen men going up against fifteen other men – there was even capacity for rugby scrums on stage. It was all as triumphant and victorious as the rugby team being portrayed.
Review by Chris Omaweng
How did an unfashionable rugby team from Devon emerge from obscurity to become the double-winning champions of England and Europe?
A story of personal sacrifice, dogged determination, fierce local pride and a collective desire to put a proud region on the sporting map; the extraordinary rise of the Exeter Chiefs ranks among the classic underdog tales in modern sport.
CAST
Micha Colombo as Jo Baxter
Joe Feeney as the players
Tim Hudson as Tony Rowe
Emile Ruddck as the players
Robert Shaw Cameron as Rob Baxter
Pete Watts as the players
COMMUNITY CAST
Annette Bassett, Tom Bennett, Cecilia Chow, Caroline Clipson, Hannah Condick, Abigail Coules-Milne, Tasha Currie, Alex Dawn, Mandy Doherty, Ian Fuller, Emma Gibbon, Katie Grace, Cullen Henshaw, Stephanie Henshaw, Lily Howe, Toby James, Karen Kennedy, Emmy Lloyd, Dan McNeill, Andrew Minter, Clare Northcott, Helen Patterson, Richard Pulman, Zara Shaw, Portia Smith, Hugh Sutherland, Clarie Temple, Sue Tong, Keyton West, Nee West, Jack Winzer
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer – Ashley Pharaoh
Director – Martin Berry
Associate Director – Katie Villa
Set and Costume Designer – Maria Terry
Casting Director – Nadine Rennie
Sound Designer – Dinah Mullen
Movement Director – Kim Healey
Video Designer – Nick Laws
Lighting Designer – Marcus Batlett
Costume Supervisor – Kate Lyons
Props Supervisor – Lizi Bennett
Producer – Cait Laws
Dialect Coach – Emma Stevens-Johnson
Community Producer – Grace Plant
Dramaturg – Sam Parker
Musical Arranger and Coach – Sarah Owen
EXE MEN
Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, EX4 4QB
7 to 18 October 2025
