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Road
Leeds Playhouse
THE HALLMARKS that brought Jim Cartwright to national prominence with The Rise and Fall Of Little Voice are all there in his debut play Road.
[[{"fid":"6724","view_mode":"inlineright","fields":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Road-runner: Lladel Bryant as DJ Bisto (Pic: Kirsten McTernan)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlineright","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"Road-runner: Lladel Bryant as DJ Bisto (Pic: Kirsten McTernan)","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"alt":"Road-runner: Lladel Bryant as DJ Bisto (Pic: Kirsten McTernan)","class":"media-element file-inlineright","data-delta":"1"}}]]Premiered in 1986, and set in a working-class northern town decimated by the Thatcher government, it's largely written as a series of monologues, with roguish narrator Scullery (Joe Alessi) introducing the road’s inhabitants on Hayley Grindle’s split-level stage.
He's the thread of continuity for a patchwork of lives that initially jar in tone, with the ensemble of 10 actors portraying teenagers getting ready for a night out, a darkly comic skinhead turned Buddhist and a poignant elderly woman who struggles with fading memories.
But as the disparate residents spill out into the audience — in contrast to the promenade style in which the play is often staged — themes emerge. These are people who drink, have casual sex and party to escape a lack of opportunity and grinding poverty (“nowt’s nice,” sighs one woman).
The undercurrent of rage builds to the climax and its desperate plea for a brighter future with the refrain of “somehow, somehow, I might escape.”
That rage is the only weapon available to these casualties of austerity and, while their portrayal is often two-dimensional, their sense of disempowerment is conveyed with a furious lyricism.
The theme of poverty traps continues to resonate yet, despite Amy Leach’s lively direction, the production feels dated when it ought to be a scorching catalyst for political change.
Runs until September 29, box office: leedsplayhouse.org.uk
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