Fair Play (Old Fitz) ★★★★

Written by Ella Road. Australian Premiere. Lost Thoughts presents. Old Fitz Theatre. 6-21 Mar 2026.

A crisp, clear two-hander that goes down like a bright, dry riesling on a hot summer’s day, sporting drama Fair Play is definitely worth checking out. Beautiful design, great performances, a script that gets into some knotty themes – yes, this is great stuff.

Ann (Rachel Crossan) & Sophie (Elodie Westhoff) are two teenage competitive runners from very different worlds. Sophie is posh, white, and ferociously driven — the kind of athlete who treats every training run like a final. Nigerian-born West Londoner Ann is a newer arrival to the sport, quietly talented, juggling the demands of school, church, a boyfriend, and a family who don’t quite understand why she runs. As they put in the hard yards, pushing to hit personal bests and qualify for Nationals, then the Euros, then maybe the Olympics, they build a solid friendship based on mutual respect. But when a rule cuts one of their careers off short — it becomes a question of whether friendship trumps personal ambition.

Under Emma Whitehead’s sure-footed direction, Fair Play builds a solid foundation of friendship between these two hyper-competitive women. As the script gives us glimpses into the mutual safe-space that is athletics for these two women, we develop a relationship with them as they build one together as well.

It’s in this friendship that Crossan and Westhoff get to show their stuff. As the power dynamics between Ann & Sophie shift, so does the focus on their friendship — and these actresses play all the careful shades of their relationship with realistic subtlety. There’s respect, and jealousy, and love, and frustration – all woven together. Combine that with a genuinely athletic performance (there’s obviously a lot of running to be done) and they both deliver on the script’s promise.

And this is a visually striking show. Kate Beere’s production design brings the race track to the Old Fitz in an architectural set of vibrant blue that feels like we’re living inside a cool pair of sneakers. It serves as an electric backdrop to video design by Aron Murray and lights by EJ Zielinski. Also effective is the sound design by Mitchell Brown & Osibi Akerejola. It’s easily one of the best looking shows I’ve seen at the Old Fitz.

Ironically though, for a play about running, it’s actually a bit of a slow burn with slightly frustrating pacing. A succession of short scenes — the scene changes are also visually striking, thankfully, because there are a lot of them — slowly builds Ann & Sophie’s friendship across about three quarters of the 100 minute running time. The play then jam packs a whole hour’s worth of ethical discussion into a swift 20 minutes at the end. It’s a real shame — this is genuinely interesting stuff to sink your teeth into, but we’re rushed to the finish line too soon.

The great thing about Fair Play is that it stuck in my mind as I left the theatre — I wanted to mull over these big thoughts more. And you know a play has sunk its claws into you when it actually changes your own behaviour — I left craving a McDonald’s McChicken… for the protein, obviously (you’ll understand once you’ve seen the show).