Despite threats from his wife and bank manager, in May 2005, middle-aged Kenny Noonan travels to Istanbul to watch Liverpool play AC Milan in the Champions’ League final. He carries the scars of thirty years as a Red - Heysel, Hillsborough, Alex Ferguson - and of living in a city which has been demonised. What happened to Liverpool FC in the second half is legend. What happened to Kenny in the bowels of the Attaturk stadium in the AC Milan VIP suite is stranger than fiction.

Interweaving histories of Liverpool F.C. with the city itself, BEATING BERLUSCONI is a comic tour de force.

BEATING BERLUSCONI is a story of hope and triumph with a warm, engaging and  charismatic central character. The tale spans a generation and follows the fortunes of the protagonist as he matures from a teenage football fanatic into a mature family man, shaped by his relationships to his father, his wife and children, his friends, and, yes, to Liverpool Football Club. It's a very human play, full of compassion, intelligence, good humour, and a shrewd insight into how politics and sociology impact on the lives of ordinary people.  TONY GREEN, Hollyoaks and Everyman Theatre writer (and Everton supporter!)

“Brilliant dialogue, and very, very funny.”  TONY BOOTH

BEATING BERLUSCONI was long-listed (last 30 from 1200) for this year’s prestigious Manchester Royal Exchange Bruntwood Playwriting Award.

BEATING BERLUSCONI stars PAUL DUCKWORTH who has spent twenty years working as an actor around Merseyside and elsewhere. He played Jack Michaelson, the last villain in BROOKSIDE, and was Ringo in the movie BACKBEAT. Most recently he played the lead, George Groves, in celebrated Liverpool playwright Esther Wilson's THE QUIET LITTLE ENGLISHMAN for Zho Visual Theatre - one of Liverpool Culture Company‘s commissions in 2008 and a critically acclaimed success in Year of Culture.  

www.beatingberlusconi.com