Road, by Jim Cartwright, has been revived at Oldham Coliseum for a 2 week run. It’s a series of dystopian vignettes (“small scraps of things” in the words of the author) loosely glued together by Scullery (Richard J Fletcher), the narrator. The setting is an almost derelict road that’s lost its name in a fictitious Lancashire town, where the majority of people are on benefits and the predominant pastimes are boozing or being laid. Imagine Coronation Street at the apocalypse and you’re almost there. This isn’t so much a kitchen sink drama but one where kitsch is in synch with itself.
Each person has their own story to tell. Mostly these depict the darker sides of life but in the sadness there are moments of humour. People are skint or out of work or alcoholic and almost nobody has any prospects of escaping – and even if they did, where would they go? The language used by most of the characters (and a lot of doubling/trebling up of roles takes place) is robust and after a while fu*k and cu*t appear almost normal parlance. Everyone is just trying to survive and nobody has much hope – they’re just living hand to mouth until the next weekly giro (remember them?) arrives.
As a whole the play is a rather depressing, with two people losing their minds and starving themselves to death in Act 1. Mercifully, Act 2 has some lighter moments.
Individual performances are strong, with Skin Lad (played by Shaban Dar) being particularly convincing, and the scene with Helen and the comatose soldier (Claire Story and John Askew) was very funny indeed. Jerry (William Travis) looks back over the years and wonders how everything went wrong for him in a bittersweet monologue.
All in all it’s a rather downbeat evening but Road does shine a light on a side of life that’s still very much around. It continues at Oldham Coliseum until Saturday October 1st.
Paul Schofield for Canal St Media