At the Crescent Theatre
Stage2 ‘Road’ by Jim Cartwright
ROAD is the first play written by Jim Cartwright, and was first produced in 1986.
The play explores the lives of the people in a deprived, working class area of Lancashire during the government of Margaret Thatcher, a time of high unemployment in the north of England. The country lives in fear of terrorist attacks and is suffering from the effects of recession, but for the inhabitants of a Lancashire street, there's a party to go to. The vagrant wide-boy Scullery is our tour guide and in the course of one wild night, the drunken Scullery conducts a tour of his Road introducing us to an assortment of characters all trying to find some kind of escape from their sleazy existence. They include young and old, single and partnered all reeling from the effects of recession, suffering poverty and a distinct lack of morale. The play captures the bawdiness and outlandishly vulgar way of existing by some of those people who have been left on the scrap heap in that small part of Lancashire in the Eighties.
Sad but also amusing in places, the play was an arresting mix of humour and pathos, transporting the audience with energy and passion, depressing yet depicting the remarkable resilience of man to adversity. For many escapism was taking refuge in sex and alcohol to numb the despair, even starvation in an extreme case, as being a way out. Although set in the eighties the similarities between then and now are, at times, uncanny, ironically we are only too aware that it is all happening again. Indeed, did it ever go away?
The set for this play was simplistic yet well designed. With the use of scaffolding portraying eight rooms on two levels across the back of the stage, the audience witnessed various shenanigans that took place behind the closed doors of the homes in the road and outside in the street itself. There was plenty of junk about – anything that you could have expected in back alleys at that time (and now) – even a shopping trolley. Lighting and sound were suitably dark and shadowy with first class costume and props.
With 29 characters named in the programme plus a chorus of 32 and almost as many crew, it is not possible to list everyone, full credit must go to every single person for playing their part. The stillness and discipline throughout the performance was excellent. The play being of an episodic structure provided plenty of useful and challenging monologues - Special mention must go to Sam Hotchin as the rum-soaked wide-boy Scullery who kept us firmly ‘on
the road’ throughout, and Alexander Earle who was superb as 5Blowpipe. Siobhan Twissell also gave an outstanding portrayal of Helen, a woman desperate to seduce a soldier, played expertly by Lawrence Gibbs whose throwing up was so convincing he had the audience squirming.
A memorable moment towards the end, when starting with the lone voice of Eddie, who was gradually joined by the whole company, the words , ‘“Somehow, a Somehow, I might escape” swelled throughout the theatre. This, with the perfect selection of music in the finale having an almost supernatural capacity maybe left the audience with a small sense of optimism!
By no means an easy play to stage or perform, Stage2 have proved yet again their ability to successfully handle even the most difficult of material. It was performed with energy and enthusiasm throughout from start to finish. It was a good, strong, all round production from everyone involved both front of house and backstage and we look forward to Stage2’s next production of ‘Our Town’ in July.
