Review by Paul Towers, 18/5/23
Road by Jim Cartwright
Directed by Cara Nolan
Produced by DMU and Curve
At Curve til Saturday 20th May 2023
“unremittingly downbeat and depressing”
Jim Cartwright’s first play, Road, is set in an unspecified northern town in the 80’s, a time and place of austerity and widespread unemployment. Cartwright went on to pen the highly acclaimed Little Voice.
The set (designed by Abby Clarke) is an ingenious representation of a street; house fronts on two levels slide back and forth, up and down to reveal various households.
The first half is unremittingly downbeat and depressing as various characters duck and dive trying to get by on the very basics of life, fags and cheap lager. Fortunately the second half was a bit lighter, especially an hilarious scene where a middle aged woman is trying to seduce a drunken soldier (Jake Winter) she has picked up. However the tone dived back into gloom with a monologue by Joey (Amirah Abimbola Alabere), well acted but depressing.
Throughout the production narrator Scullery (Ella Gibson), looking like a Kevin & Perry tribute, drifted on and off stage to push the narrative along. This brings me to, for me, a problem with this particular production. Gender blind casting seems to be the current thing. I am not sure whether this is through necessity or choice but it makes things difficult at times for the audience (me) to work out whether the character is supposed to be male or female.
I found the writing erratic, one moment quick-fire character moments and the next big monologues. However, one thing I did take away from the production was that people living in poverty seem to choose to handle it in one of two ways. Either they embrace their victimhood and wallow or, like some of the characters in Road, they make the best of what little they have.
Road is not an easy watch, despite the attempts at levity, especially of those of us who lived through the 1980’s. However it does give a large cast of 18 a chance to show off their acting chops.
Road runs at Curve until Saturday 20th May
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