Grab a pint, have a seat, and get ready for Inis Nua Theatre Company’s kick-off to its 2025-2026 season with the U.S. premiere of ‘Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England.’ The Edinburgh Fringe Festival hit by Alex Hill centers on Billy, a diehard football (soccer) fan celebrating England’s victory in the Euro Cup semifinals at Wembley Stadium and his wild stunt that goes viral.
The play also marks the first of two Pop-Up Play in a Pub productions this season for Inis Nua at Fergie’s Pub, where each ticket includes a savory pie and a glass of beer or wine.
Inis Nua Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Kathryn MacMillian first encountered the play at the Edinburgh Fringe. Bringing it to Philadelphia felt natural — we have passionate sports fandom here too. Beneath the chaos though, this is a story about friendship, identity, and belonging.
MacMillian recently sat down with Metro to talk more about the play’s rise, the company’s pub series, and why theatre feels especially vital right now.
Were you already familiar with ‘Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England,’ or did it pop onto your radar while curating this season?
Inis Nua sends me to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August each year to scout for shows. My first trip there was in 2023. I saw ‘Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England’ that year and I’ve wanted to produce it here for our audiences ever since.
The show has had an amazing rise. It was a major breakthrough hit for the writer, Alex Hill, in 2023. He produced it himself and performed it himself, in a tiny venue, with no set, at 10 at night… but it got great reviews and word of mouth, so I happened to hear about it among the thousands of shows happening at the Fringe. Since then, Alex has played to larger and larger venues, touring the UK. This is the first production by another actor (Adam Howard) — Alex is ready to give the show a bigger life.
Philly sports fans are also pretty die-hard. Do you see any parallels between Billy’s story and the way Philadelphians rally behind our teams?
Oh, absolutely! I think Philly is the perfect place for this show to play in America because there’s no other city that has the fervor, the personal investment, and the brutal honesty of a Philly sports fan. We care about our players and we hold them and their coaches and managers to account. I love to see them love their fans back. There’s a lot of this same give-and-take for an English football fan, and that’s in the play.
The character, Billy, is a fan of AFC Wimbledon, which is a fan owned football club. Being a season ticket holder makes him a part owner. It’s personal. Wouldn’t that be amazing if that happened here? Imagine a Philly sports team where decisions are led by the fans ourselves.
Inis Nua is presenting two Pop-Up Play in a Pub shows this season — what inspired the idea of putting plays in a pub in the first place?
It long precedes my time at Inis Nua. Pub theatre is a big part of culture in Ireland, England, and Scotland — fun experiences served up with a pint. Fifteen years ago, local company Tiny Dynamite started doing performances inspired by this tradition, and Inis Nua partnered with them on a few occasions.
Fergus Carey is on our board, so creating our own series for Fergie’s made a lot of sense. These days, we are partnering with Tiny Dynamite a lot more often — not this show, but our next one, ‘The Greatest Play in the History of the World,’ in December. I have been the Artistic Director at Tiny Dynamite since 2017, and twice I’ve inherited this great pub theatre model from another artistic director.
How does performing at Fergie’s shape the audience experience for this particular story, compared to a traditional theater space?
It’s a busy pub environment, with a lively bar downstairs, so I’ve learned to pick high energy shows that suit the fun atmosphere. ‘Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England’ will be perfect there. There are football chants and cheers, pint chugging, the pre-game energy of the play is perfect in a bar. I should add, there will be no actual flare lighting or flare…uh…insertion in the performance.
Inis Nua brings plays from Ireland, England, Scotland, and Wales to Philadelphia. Why is that mission and those locations important to you and the rest of the Inis Nua team?
Irish and UK plays — tackling big issues with some of the greatest dramatic writing in the world — are the lens through which Inis Nua can explore important ideas affecting Philadelphia. Seeing our challenges reflected in the context of other cultures gives us new insight into our own conflicts, be they personal, social, or political. And we want to be part of important conversations with our audiences, via the most compelling plays we can find, performed at absolutely the highest calibre.
Are there any common themes that connect the plays chosen for 2025–26?
It’s funny you should ask. We are doing another play about soccer on our mainstage later this season, ‘SAME TEAM.’ It’s a funny, athletic ensemble show, based on the true story of the women’s football team assembled in Scotland for the Homeless World Cup which is a real — and really amazing — thing that happens every few years. Teams from after school programs, shelters, and community resource centers, all over the world, get a chance to play in their own World Cup. ‘SAME TEAM’ will conclude our season in June 2026, just in time for the World Cup to be played here in Philly.
Why do you hope Philadelphia theater-goers come out to experience this story or the rest of the productions in this season?
Well, I’d love to share the great work we do with as many audiences as possible. I’m really proud of what Inis Nua is doing and what our artists are capable of. And audiences have been showing us how much they believe in us, which is so inspiring. For example, the theatre industry, nationwide, has been lamenting the ‘death’ of the audience subscription model for many years. But this season we already have the largest number of subscribers that we have ever had. We have met our subscription goal before performances have even started.
So I see an opportunity right now for Inis Nua to introduce ourselves to more people. And I think that’s vital. I think what theatre offers to our citizens right now is vital — a place for real and engaging conversation, to gather, to laugh, for God’s sake, and to be reminded of the power of gathering in groups for big ideas, entertainment, and hope. Yeah, hope! I hope!
‘Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England’ is written by Alex Hill, stars Adam Howard, and is directed by Charlotte Northeast. The production runs Oct. 8 to 26, upstairs at Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom Street) and tickets are available online at inisnuatheatre.org.
