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Road runs out of mileage in new age of austerity
Our ROad
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a production that panders – if inadvertently – to Western prejudice against China
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a history that excavates the enormous role played by agricultural workers in recent times
ALEX HALL recommends a book that places empirical evidence at the heart of understanding racism
A recognition that individually we are powerless both politically and socially is essential, writes GORDON PARSONS
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.
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