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ROAD REVIEW Leeds Arts Centre presents Jim Cartwright’s bleak but poignant play, Road, at the Carriageworks An enduring and classic piece of modern British theatre, which speaks to us now more than ever in these grim times The idea of going to see a play based in the ’80s about economic difficulty and mass unemployment might seem a bit off-putting given the country’s present financial circumstances. However, a frequent shot of humour into the otherwise bleak subject matter means that the audience for Jim Cartwright’s Road is kept on its toes, darting between moments of genuine tragedy and gritty comedy. This production at the Carriageworks manages to keep the balance perfectly. Upon arrival in the main auditorium, it seemed the performance had already begun: two girls stood at the front scrawling crude graffiti on the stage wall while chatting audibly, giggling as they teased each other about who fancied who. This improvised pre-play scene continued until all audience members were seated, at which point Scullery, our charismatic and somewhat filthy guide for the evening, arrived and started having a bit of rather one-sided banter with the front row, suggesting that he knew the mother of one guest rather intimately. It’s not every night you go to the theatre and end up being accused of having a promiscuous mother, but Road isn’t about theatre-goers watching a play: the audience is as much a part of the action as the characters and the lines are constantly blurred concerning where the real world ends and the performance begins. Every space in the auditorium is used, with the main doors bursting open every five minutes to present new characters, people hanging off the balconies shouting obscenities and full blown scraps taking place in the stalls. At the interval, the audience are invited to the bar for a drink with the locals and later, a disco in the auditorium. Sure enough, if you fancied a quick glass of red in the break, you would suddenly find yourself watching Scullery and friends doing karaoke in the corner. The overall effect of this production was that of feeling genuinely immersed in the action, rather than a removed bystander. This, in turn, made the play’s more poignant moments all the more real and moving as we watched a Northern community attempting to cope or, in some cases, failing to cope in an economic downturn. The Leeds Arts Centre presents a brave, clever and exhilarating production of an enduring and classic piece of modern British theatre, which speaks to us now more than ever in these grim times. Posted on Thursday 18th November 2010 Stacey McCullough