A FORMER EastEnder will head the cast of The Saints, a new play about the highs and lows of following Southampton Football Club, this summer.

Scarlett Alice Johnson, best known for her role as Vicki Fowler in the soap, as well as playing Laura in the BBC series Pram Face, will play the role of Emily.

Nuffield will premiere The Saints in August at Nuffield Playing Field, a specially built pop-up theatre in Southampton’s Guildhall Square.

The production is set to explore the theatrical experience of attending a football match, from the sense of spectacle and occasion to the intimacy and power of crowd behaviour and the sense of belonging and community this creates.

The Saints, which celebrates the city and Nuffield’s joint 50th birthdays, is written by award-winning young playwright Luke Barnes and directed by Matthew Dunster (Mametz, National Theatre Wales; The Frontline, The Lightning Child, The Globe; Love And Money, Young Vic and Royal Exchange).

It will run from August 1 to 17. Tickets are on sale now.