When World Cup Final 1966 kicks off on Wednesday, the stage at the Gardner Arts Centre will transform into a stadium, complete with frenzied fans and oranges at half-time.

See this play and you might get more than you bargained for because directors Carl Heap and Tom Morris make very good use of the audience. You are likely to find yourself part of the crowd: Cheering, shouting, singing and volunteering to demonstrate football formations. You might even have to do press-ups.

The play is a celebration of football, the larger-than-life personalities which have always dominated the game, the on and off-pitch fisticuffs, emotions running high and ultimately, England's legendary World Cup win against West Germany. It was a match to remember and here the game and the cultural context are vividly recreated.

This World Cup had everything: Passion, controversy and some fine football. Back in the day before footballers earned ridiculous money and cared mostly about their haircuts, before red and yellow cards, substitutes and sex scandals.

The final was played before a packed Wembley with a capacity 97,000 in attendance. Another 400 million people around the world watched the match on television.

The England manager Alf Ramsey caused a sensation before kick-off, by leaving out star striker Jimmy Greaves and instead kept together the winning combination up front of Hurst and Roger Hunt. Greaves was distraught.

The match kicked off and England had the worst start imaginable. After just 13 minutes an uncharacteristic lapse of concentration in defence lead to a goal by the opposition.

A few minutes later Ramsey's decision to stick with the winning strike partnership was spectacularly vindicated when Hurst equalised. When another goal put England in the lead with only 12 minutes of the match left to play, the England players felt the Jules Rimet Trophy was in the bag.

But a scrambled goal from the other side just before the final whistle forced the game into extra time, the first time the final had gone to extra time since 1934.

Ramsey refused to let the England players give in to weariness and disappointment.

Play restarted and in the 100th minute controversy raged when Hurst, coming in on the near post, blasted the ball goal-ward. It hit the underside of the bar, bounced down and then out of the goal. But which side of the line did it land?

The nearest England player to the ball was Hunt, believing it to be a goal he wheeled away in celebration rather than tap the ball back over the line. T The Swiss referee was not sure but the Soviet linesman was. The goal was given, 3-2 England.

The Germans protested but any sense of injustice was crushed when, with only seconds left, Bobby Moore struck a long ball up field for Hurst to chase. He caught it and thumped it into the roof of the German net to become the first player to ever score a hat-trick in a World Cup final.

As Hurst was running up the left wing, some spectators got onto the pitch, resulting in the commentator, Kenneth Wolstenholme, speaking the words which have become part of English football folklore: "Some people are on the pitch, they think it's all over," then, as Hurst's shot hits the roof of the net, he completes the phrase with: "It is now!"

Final score 4-2 England, Bobby Moore collects the trophy from Queen Elizabeth II. The players and the crowds go wild. It was the first time England had won football's World Cup since the tournament began in 1930 and in the process inspired an enduring national mythology.

This high-energy, interactive production pays nostalgic tribute to the ordinary men who dared to dream and to the beautiful game itself. It promises to capture the imagination whether you are a fan of football or not.