Content note: This article makes reference to suicide.

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In her return to theatre, Perth’s multi-talented Andrea Gibbs adds another feather to her cap as playwright in a production interrogating what it means to give your life to sport.

Barracking for the Umpire draws on her family’s own love of footy and emerging conversations on traumatic brain injuries in sport to explore the love and sacrifice involved in putting your body on the line for AFL.

Ahead of the play’s opening at Subiaco Arts Centre next month, Nina Levy caught up with Andrea Gibbs to find out more.

Nina Levy: Andrea, you’re well known locally as an actor, comedian, broadcaster, co-founder and producer of Barefaced Stories and presenter of ABC Radio’s Weekends program” – what inspired you to add “playwright” to your credits?

Andrea Gibbs: Writing a play was something I’d been thinking about for a long time, however it sat in the too hard basket. It takes a huge effort to bash out a script — not to mention confidence to back yourself. Without the help of Polly Low (Black Swan’s dramaturge), the Funny Girl Initiative and The Malcolm Robertson Foundation, this story would never have gotten a guernsey.

NL: The play is inspired by your own family’s experiences with footy – how were the seeds of the play sown?

AG: The title is taken from a running joke in my family. Dad had to quit playing footy in the early 70s due to too many head knocks. Instead of playing he began umpiring. Mum would still go to the games to watch him, but she was the only one at the ground barracking for the umpire.

Dad told me about the knocks he received and it made me sick. Seeing players completely pole-axed on the ground and knocked out is the most horrible thing about footy. One minute you’re cheering and laughing, the next you feel sick in your stomach watching a player twitching on the ground or unconscious. We still don’t do enough to protect the players in Aussie rules, especially at a community level where so many knocks occur and there are no medical staff to take care of the players.

NL: And how did it turn from concept into reality?

AG: Bum on seat, fingers on the keyboard and a lot of research. Talking to players I knew, including my dad and brother, listening to interviews, reading newspaper articles – not just here but also following stories from the USA and UK. Traumatic brain injury is a problem in many codes – NFL, rugby and soccer (from heading the ball). Australia is quite a way behind in concussion research compared to other countries.

NL: Who will we be meeting on stage in Barracking for the Umpire?

AG: A family – all footy mad but one. All of them have in some way sacrificed their life for footy and are now wondering if it was worth it. The names of some of the characters have been inspired by actual Donnybrookers and my cousins.

NL: Barracking for the Umpire feels timely given that we’re starting to hear stories in the media about the chronic effects of multiple concussions. Have emerging conversations around chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) resulting from football concussions influenced the work?

AG: I started writing bits of the play around 2017 based on my Dad. Polly Farmer’s CTE diagnosis following his death in 2019 was the first story that really piqued my interest. Since then, we’ve heard more stories about the impact of concussion. Younger players – Daniel Venables, Rowan Powell, Brad Shepherd, just to name a few — have all retired early due to concussion. Then there’s players like Shane Tuck and Danny Frawley who both suicided due to the mental rollercoaster of CTE.

The stories I’ve heard … of what things used to be like when the hits were harder, the players were encouraged to be aggressive and kept on the footy field despite having been knocked out.

More players and their families are talking about it. And more players are donating their brains to the brain bank for research when they die, as CTE is only able to be diagnosed once the person passes.

The stories I’ve heard over the past five years have influenced the work. And stories of what things used to be like when the hits were harder, the players were encouraged to be aggressive and kept on the footy field despite having been knocked out.

NL: How does being the daughter, rather than son, of a footballer shape the way you’ve written about the sport?

AG: Given the chance, I would have loved to play football. But growing up in Donnybrook as a girl, netball was my only option for sport. Netball is nothing compared to footy in the eyes of a small-town community. The whole town gets behind the footy club — who wouldn’t want to be part of that? I guess not being allowed into the inner sanctum just fed a hunger for it. I’d long for it more because it was something I couldn’t have.

When I watched my first AFLW match live I cried. I clapped and cheered and balled my eyes out – I had no idea that I’d get so emotional, but it was just pride and sadness too. I was sad for that little girl that didn’t get the chance to play like these women, these athletes I was seeing in front of me. It was a kind of mourning.

I’ve tried to write that feeling into the script. Because footy isn’t just about blokes.

NL: You’ve had plenty of experience presenting and performing other people’s stories. How have those experiences shaped the way you write your own play?

AG: Well, I’ve learned that vulnerability almost always pays off. I embrace the chaos of being human and have invested that into the writing. We don’t want to see perfect people up on stage. My characters show their flaws.

NL: What do you hope audiences will take away from Barracking for the Umpire?

AG: That theatre and footy are similar. There are extreme highs and very low lows. Both can pump you up, make you feel invincible, and then in the next moment kick the shit out of you. Both create community. Unbreakable bonds between people. I hope audiences walk away wondering if it’s all worth it.

I think it is. But we’ve gotta keep each other as safe as we can.

Barracking for the Umpire is showing at Subiaco Arts Centre from 7 October – 23 October 2022.

Pictured top: Cast member Ian Wilkes. Photo: Supplied