ROAD, Cartwright, Pilot theatre, tours till 1 March 2003
ROAD: Jim Cartwright
Pilot Theatre: info www.pilot-theatre.com
Touring till 1 March 2003
Runs: 2h 15m, one interval
Review: Rod Dungate, Worcester Swan, 13 November 2002
Pilot pack a punch, a painful play presented with vigour and honesty, a young audience gripped.Pilot Theatre certainly pack a punch: a punch that works hand in glove with Cartwright's potent 80s play. It opens with a skilful projected sequence showing the town the tour is in: the message to the audience couldn't be clearer – this is a play about your town, about your road and about your time.
What then follows is a series of disjointed 'fly-on-the-wall' clips setting before us a group of lives and relationships in which there is little hope for a brighter future, lives blighted from the moment of birth, lives in which people think 'I'm no good, no use' that life is little more than 'work, work, work, work, work and then death.' There are few acts of real kindness, when they occur (like a vagrant carrying home a drug-addict to his home) they are like a bright beacon struggling desperately to keep burning.
All this would be too much to bear were it not for the vigour of the company who present it with humour, directness and great honesty. It's a fine ensemble team: director Marcus Romer has welded them and this episodic tale into a seamless whole aided by designer Dawn Allsopp's intriguing set. (It's like a children's playground round-about which the actors turn – even a scene change is an effort of work.)
Characters constantly look back to better times (but were they really?) and nowhere more poignantly than in Rob Pickavance's memory of younger days. Much to be enjoyed is Nicky Goldie's drunken seduction of a pissed-out-of-his-head Neville Robinson's soldier.
Cartwright has worked with Romer to slightly update his text. Sometimes this sticks out like a sore thumb. The play is very much a play of its time with a timeless message and should be allowed to be that: it's a powerful, robust work. The tinkering weakens it.
Carl/ Valerie/ Lane/ Linda: Emma Ashton
Brenda/ Molly/ Helen: Nicky Goldie
Eddie/ SkinLad/ Blowpipe: Karl Haynes
Scullery: Steve Owen
Jerry/ Dad/ Professor/ Bisto: Rob Pickavance
Brink/ Joey/ Soldier: Neville Robinson
Louise/ Clare/ Chantal/ Dor: Neve Taylor
Director: Marcus Romer
Design: Dawn Allsopp
Music and Sound: Sandy Nuttgens
Lighting: James Farncombe
Voice Coach: Susan Stern
Fights: Richard Ryan
Tours to: Salisbury Playhouse; Charter Theatre, Preston; Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham; The Helix, Dublin; Lyric Hammersmith, London; Hexagon, Reading; Theatre Royal, Winchester; The Hawth, Crawley; Opera House, Jersey
2002-11-15 14:09:24