The Changing Room is a 1971 play by David Storey, set in a men's changing room before, during and after a rugby league football game. It premiered at the Royal Court Theatre on 9 November 1971, directed by Lindsay Anderson. The 1973 Broadway production, directed by Michael Rudman, won several awards including the New York Drama Critics' Circle award for Best Play and the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for John Lithgow.
At the play's core is a semi-pro Northern England rugby league team. During the week, its members are peaceable men toiling away at mindless, working class jobs. On Saturday, they prepare for gory combat on the playing field. The changing room is where they perform their pre-game initiation rites, strip down, loosen muscles, and get into their uniforms. After the match they return, often broken, muddy, and bloody, regretting their loss or giddy with victory in the communal shower. There is little in the way of plot, but Storey engages his audience with his ability to dissect his characters' hurts, hopes, desires, and fighting instincts.
I was born in the valley of bricks
Where the river runs high above the rooftops
I was waiting for the cars coming home late at night
From the Dutch mountains
I was standing in the valley of rock
Up to my belly in an early fog
I was looking for the road to a green painted house
In the Dutch mountains
In the Dutch mountains
Mountains
I met a woman in the valley of stone
She was painting roses on the walls of her home
And the moon is a coin with the head of the queen
Of the Dutch mountains
Mountains
I lost a button of my shirt today
It fell on the ground
And it was rolling away
Like a trail leading me back
To the Dutch mountains
To the Dutch mountains
Mountains
I met a miller on the back of a cow
He was looking for the wind but he didn't know how
I said: Follow the cloud that looks like a sheep
In the Dutch mountains
In the Dutch mountains
In the Dutch mountains
Mountains
Mountains
Buildings