Celebrating its 30th year, the Bush has proved itself as capable as ever at producing plays with a topical theme. A Carpet, A Pony and a Monkey is a football play — tapping into the current national obsession with the game — by Mike Packer and directed by the Bush's artistic director Mike Bradwell. The play is based on Packer's experience at Euro 2000 when he was commissioned by the Bush to follow English football touts and fans at close quarters.

Roy William's play Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads at the National's Loft, earlier in May, looked at issues of race and nationalism via a collection of English football fans in a South London pub. Now, as World Cup Fever intensifies and David Beckham continues to hug the headlines, Mike Packer's play travels with ticket touts to Belgium for Euro 2000 to look at the interaction between men, morals and money, set in the world of international football matches.

A Carpet, A Pony and A Monkey looks at the seamier side of football through one of the least liked and least understood aspects of the game — the ticket touts who buy and sell access to football matches for a profit. Evil or entrepreneurs? Packer writes a unique experience of the world of the ticket touts.

A Carpet, A Pony and A Monkey opened at the Bush on May 17 and runs until June 15.

—By Paul Webb Theatrenow