ROAD. To 29 March.
Bolton.
ROAD
by Jim Cartwright
Octagon Theatre To 29 March 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm
Runs 2hr 35min One interval.
Review: Timothy Ramsden 22 March.
Road comes raucously home.
Granada TV has the Street, but Bolton dramatist Jim Cartwright has given Road to the theatre. His play is a highly theatrical depiction of a rough, tough night up-and-down a Northern terraced thoroughfare with a pub at each end. A world in itself, where everyone knows everyone and the only visitors are the burger-van to supplement the fish-and-chip supplies, or a drunken soldier brought back by an apparently sex-starved woman.
The scene where she seduces him with the finesse of sandpaper that’s seen better days, as he slumps and sicks, has an element of wild comedy that Noreen Kershaw’s revival emphasises throughout. It’s there in the casting of our host, John Henshaw’s Scullery.
Henshaw’s Scullery is a rough-spoken, beer-paunched old habitué of the Road, whose name he notes at the start has been ripped away from the sign. When this Scullery lands in a supermarket trolley, it’s easy to imagine he’s there for life, though he finally heaves himself free. Long acquaintance has presumably earned him the flirtatious responses he repeatedly gets from women.
Cartwright’s debut play burst on the world in London, not his native Bolton. It was then-Octagon director Andy Hay who later gave the writer his Bolton commission, the two-hander pub drama Two. There, one male and one female actor play landlord and landlady, plus the often comic, occasionally serious, denizens of their drinking-hole.
Here, alongside Henshaw, a cast of six create the many Roadsters, at home or out for the night, young or old. Designer Dawn Allsopp provides windows behind the in-the-round audience which light up for each home scene. Most suggest a neatness at odds with the frantic or chaotic lifestyles, drink or relationship-induced, acted out on stage.
In a production that seems happiest creating comedy, especially the visual comedy of behaviour, some of the strangest behaviour comes across most memorably, such as the Soldier scene, for which seduction is a wildly underwhelming word. And, especially, a double pick-up where Joanna Higson and Eve Robertson play willing and taunting partners to two young dark-suited men before wheeling off into a drinking ritual.
Scullery: John Henshaw.
Louise’s Brother/Eddie/Skin Lad/Blowpipe/Scotch Girl/Curt/Mr Bald: James Cartwright.
Louise/Lane/Clare/Linda: Joanna Higson.
Brenda/Helen/Valerie/Marion: Julie Riley.
Carol/Dor/Molly/Chantal: Eve Robertson.
Brink/Mr Bald/Joey/Soldier/Barry: Paul Simpson.
Eddie’s Dad/Professor/Jerry/Manfred/Mr Bald/Brian: Antony Bessick.
Director: Noreen Kershaw.
Designer: Dawn Allsopp.
Lighting: Jim Simmons.
Sound: Andy Smith.
Waltz Choreographer: Claude Close.
2008-04-01 11:57:19