✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Theatre

Road, Royal Court review ★★★★★

21 Jul 17 – 09 Sep 17, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

The return of seminal play by Jim Cartwright: Road is revived at the Royal Court, directed by John Tiffany

By CW Contributor on 31/7/2017

5 CW readers are interested
Road, Royal Court 2017. Photo by Sarah Weal
Road, Royal Court 2017. Photo by Sarah Weal
Road, Royal Court review 4 Road, Royal Court review Frankie Crossley
Jim Cartwright’s celebrated and seminal play Road makes a timely and relevant homecoming to the Royal Court. Having premiered in 1986, Road is as cutting and perceptive about the state of the nation as it was thirty years ago. Directed by Harry Potter and the Cursed Child's John Tiffany and starring author Lemn Sissay and Game of Throne's Michelle Fairley, the show takes us to a dingy but lively working class street in Lancashire and illuminates the stories of its residents. Poignant, touching, and often bleak, Road remains a thoughtful and insightful piece about desperation, determination, and spirit.


Cartwright’s play is often staged in promenade, so the audience follow Scullery, played by Sissay, down the road to meet the locals. Confined instead to the Royal Court stage, designer Chloe Lamford builds a stark and drab street, with stairs that descend to the audience and a glass square that acts as an indoor space, rising out of the stage.


Each scene explores different characters, the similar motifs are a search for sustenance, a desire to live fully, and a questioning of who or what has spoiled life. In a particularly horrific scene, Shane Zaza’s Joey chooses stay in bed and starve, comparing his hunger to a religious experience. In another, the brilliant June Watson as Molly, an older woman on the street, puts on her face while talking to herself, having nowhere to go. Cartwright’s characters are smart and ambitious, but in an environment which lends no opportunity to them, their energies and talents are wasted.


Michelle Fairley dazzles and offers some of the best comedic moments as Helen, a persistent woman who brings home a paralytically boozed soldier. Fairley shows Helen’s desperation as both exhaustion and fierce resolve. Faye Marsay as Louise is also comedically brilliant. In the climactic scene, a life-affirming and haunting ritual set to Otis Redding’s Try a Little Tenderness, she and Liz White as Carol brilliantly demonstrate their pent-up anger and frustration but also the vulnerability of wanting to hope, and wanting to dream.


The only disappointment is a half-hearted attempt at audience integration. Road calls for an intimate and dynamic experience between actor and audience, with Scullery as the mediator. But here at the Royal Court the roles remain static, with a few cursory call-outs to the audience.


Nevertheless, at its best Road is an invitation to look into others’ lives without judgment, but still with a great deal of intimacy. Its relevance is almost unquestionable, and with strong performances and slick direction, Road is sharp and stirring theatre.




Click here to find out more about the Royal Court 2017 Season





What Road, Royal Court review
Where Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AS | MAP
Nearest tube Sloane Square (underground)
When 21 Jul 17 – 09 Sep 17, 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM
Price £12 - £45
Website Click here to book via the Royal Court



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 20 - 22 May
Things to do in London this weekend: 20 - 22 May
Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
Queen’s Jubilee 2022: where to celebrate
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022

Editor's Picks

Bring on the books: best summer reads 2017
Bring on the books: best summer reads 2017
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2022
Ink Almeida Theatre: London stage highlights
London theatre: June highlights

What members say

    Disturbing powerful play

    Sandrine Roch

Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • The Sea, The Sea

    The Sea, The Sea – named after Iris Murdoch's Booker-winning novel – brings stylish seafood to Chelsea’s Pavilion Road, with a fishmonger and deli by day, restaurant and champagne bar by night.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Vardo restaurant
    Read more...
    Map
  • Bread Ahead, Chelsea

    Bread Ahead may be most famous for scrumptious, and incredibly Instagram friendly, doughnuts, but also has a incredible variety of top notch bread and pastries on offer. They have everything from basic sourdoughs and baguettes to ciabatta, mini savoury filled focaccias and even Breton Kouign Amann.

    Read more...

    London has many amazing bakeries and Bread Ahead is a fantastic place to visit - keep an eye on Culture Whisper for news and reviews!

    Book Map
5

royal court 2017 season

Sloane Square

off West End

You might like

  • Hamilton in London: Cleve September (Laurens), Jamael Westman ( Hamilton), Jason Pennycooke (Lafayette) & Tarinn Callender (Mulligan) - Photo by Matthew Murphy

    Hamilton, Victoria Palace Theatre review ★★★★★

  • Natalie Dormer to star in Venus In Fur, London 2017

    Venus in Fur, Theatre Royal Haymarket review ★★★★★

  • Young Marx, The Bridge Theatre

    Young Marx, The Bridge Theatre



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×