At a Premier League football club, everyone has something at stake.

Young players dream of making the Academy. Parents invest everything in helping them get there. Behind the scenes, kit men, canteen staff, executives and countless others keep the machinery of the beautiful game turning.

But this is a world of huge ambition, enormous pressure and difficult choices, where loyalties can unravel faster than transfers and giving everything you have is no guarantee of success.

The Academy takes us inside this rarely seen world through a fast-moving ensemble of characters, from those at the very top of the club to the youngsters whose futures can be decided in a moment. Dreams are pursued, sacrifices are made and the line between wanting success and needing it begins to blur.

Compelling, heart-breaking and, at times, very funny indeed, Nicole Moody’s new play is about much more than football. It’s about ambition, family, loyalty and what happens when the thing you desperately want starts to become the most important thing in your life.

Performed by an ensemble cast playing multiple roles, with on-stage costume changes and music driving the action, The Academy is a lively, inventive piece of new writing that takes audiences somewhere they rarely get to see.

You don’t need to love football to love The Academy. You just need to know what it’s like to have a dream.

Only three performances – don’t miss your chance to see it at the Barn.