Road — Royal Court

I have a code from the Royal Court for £10 off the front stalls seats, will wait for a few (hopefully positive) reviews before committing to booking this.

Unable to keep it in! If it's staged to Otis Redding's Try a Little Tenderness, at least he's using the original's music.

The play is one that stood out, for me, back in the eighties. Being from a working class Northern upbringing myself it reflected a way of life that I knew well and the poetry that Cartwright brought to it had the intelligence and creativity that I always felt was there, however stifled by government's dismissal of them/us.

The major change is that it was originally a promenade production, so you get to sit down this time. 

A couple of great £12 stalls seats available for early Sep

royalcourttheatre.com/book/?eID=85372

Saw this tonight, and (eventually) loved it. After oodles of poetic telling in the first half, the play pays off with some transcendent showing in the second half.

Some spoilers follow. . .

Back in Thatcher's eighties, while Adrian Mole was making his comically ambitious life plans, the less deluded working class folks in "Road," in Lancashire, were making plans as far ahead as seemed possible: for the night.

The immediacy of the concept, involving characters, living for the moment, looking for a buzz, is at first stunted by poetic speeches by these characters, who all live on the same Road, about their lives. There is so much telling, and so little showing, that it's difficult to engage, despite the production design directly connecting us to the stage by a flight of stairs, and despite Lemn Sissay's narrator speaking directly to us.

Two Alan Bennett style monologues did hit home in the first half: one by Mark Hadfield's old soldier, remembering better days, and an even better one by June Watson's old dear, putting her face on. The moment she remembered the curve of her mother's white hair, now echoed by her own hair, was so well performed by Watson that I welled up.

But by and large, the first half, while poetic, doesn't really connect with the audience. It does however set up a terrific second half, in which two vital set pieces prove so unforgettably, electrically alive, that the magic of theatre gathered myself and my companion up, and left us tingling with that feeling of discovery and excitement you get when a show really pays off.

One such magical moment involves a phenomenal Michelle Fairley, on a drunk date with Mike Noble; and the other involves Noble again, on a double date with a dreamy Dan Parr, a fierce Liz White, and her hilariously obliging and clueless sidekick, played by Faye Marsay.

These scenes were so involving, and so thematically resonant, that even the obligatory (and utterly apt) playing of the music of Elbow felt earned and just right, rather than some mere storytelling shortcut.

Whatever you do, do not leave this show at the interval. The second half pays off brilliantly.

4 stars

Plus Billington -

www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/jul/30/road-review-royal-court

This is one of the most accurate, and beautifully written, portrayals of Northern working class life from the period of its industrial disintegration. The production is one that raises questions about its audience, however. Within the text there is the potential for them to be brought into the reach of its anarchic warmth and to be made complicit in its its despair, something that does not let the viewers off the hook. I think Tiffany's production subverts that well, in comparison with the original production, but that it is somewhat lost on a Royal Court audience, who may feel politically in tune but are allowed to remain sociologically distant. By presenting it as though in a gallery or museum, with the safety of the actor/audience divide in place, the characters (from my viewpoint a representation of myself) are observed too remotely. Great performances, powerful language but those watching need to be made to feel 'a greater part of/threatened by' it. They need the fear of someone asking 'who are you laughing at?' or the trepidation of being cajoled into something with a 'come on, it's just a bit of fun'.

The north/south divide - someone near me found the idea of chips and gravy hilarious. Having suffered southern chippies for decades, who look flummoxed if you ask for chips and gravy, can I point out that this is the only way to eat chips, with thick, brown, gravy. Everything else is a poor substitute.....

It was so exciting

And such a stimulating exposition

Of complex characters

Speaking such bountiful and expressive words

With direction rivalled only by the oscars in its scope

That for the first time in 25 years of going to the theatre

I fell asleep in the first half

And pissed myself

So had to leave at the interval

What a shame

I wonder what Shakespeare would have made of this play

Probably sh*t himself at the amazing writing skills of the playwright

Summat, summat's never gonna change. [family motto, Parsley]

It's a bit like saying

"Oh that dog sh*t won't taste very nice"


Hardly premonition exquisite

Get over yourself

The play is crap and that is what my reference was to
Not to people

And its badly written

And offers no social views on anything

If it offered a proper social commentary

I would be moved and engaged

People swearing and shouting

Is not interesting

I have seen many films and plays

About people with many different social backgrounds

Which were moving and affecting

As they are written and staged properly

The playwright does the subject matter no favours

By offering these caricatures cardboard cutouts

It makes the stereotypes worse than ever

Apparently Beyoncé comes on in the second half

I am at home watching eastenders

Offering a f*** load more social commentary in 3 seconds

Than "road" could ever manage

😂😂😂😂

36th

Were you also told coming second in sports day was good

And 50% was a high mark



The same NT

Who have comissioned and staged

Common and Mosquitoes

😂😂😂😂

And our country's good

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂