Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England

Football. It’s what defined my happiness. It’s what filled my soul with joy and occasionally... despair.

It’s the EURO 2020 Final at Wembley and Billy’s gone viral for sticking a flare up his arse! Billy and his best pal Adam are die-hard football fans. It’s how they spend every weekend, without fail. It’s their escape, their religion and their life. But when they encounter a new group of mates, they start to take their support one step further.

Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England is a blisteringly funny play which debuted to both audience and critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023. In 2024 it won the prestigious Holden Street Theatre
Edinburgh Fringe Award and ran at Australia’s Adelaide Fringe Festival in 2025.

Written and originally performed by Alex Hill, the play asks what it means for young men to find belonging and the lengths to which it might drive them.

This edition was published to coincide with the run at Underbelly’s Cowbarn, Edinburgh Fringe Festival in July 2025.

Alex Hill is a writer and actor. His play Why I Stuck a Flare Up My Arse for England debuted at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023 to critical acclaim, including four-star reviews in The Scotsman and Broadway World UK. The show transferred to London’s Southwark Playhouse in spring 2024 before transferring again to Adelaide Fringe Festival in Australia, in spring 2025.