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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.
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
