YAT - Road
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Synopsis (taken from the script):
Under the guidance of the rum-soaked, wide-boy, Scullery, the audience is taken on an evening's tour of a scruffy, depressed road in a small Lancashire town. Moving from street corner to living room, from bedroom to kitchen, the inhabitants, young and middle-aged, are presented, showing their socially and emotionally wretched lives in this sharp, sad but often funny play. It captures with bawdy and sometimes obscene precision what it is to be a living reject in this small town in the Eighties.
The play contains some strong language.
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Miles Orru and Vicky Joyce | 
Bjarne Lyshede and Emma Donaghy |
One of the most enjoyable aspects of any Youth Action Theatre production is the energy and enthusiasm that is shown throughout from start to finish, and YAT?s production at the Hampton Hill Playhouse last week of Road by Jim Cartwright was no exception.
By no means an easy play to stage or perform, the group have also proved yet again their ability to successfully handle even the most difficult of material. How very refreshing to see a local theatre group taking a detour from the traditional ?safe plays? for once.
Although obviously set in a bawdy northern road in the late eighties (with solid accents from all the cast without exception), it was not hard to recognise people living all around us now in modern day life. There is not enough space to list all the characters that live and travel through the road (a character count of over 38!) but full credit to every single one of the 24 actors and actresses all who made this a fantastic production and an evening?s entertainment I wish I could go back and appreciate again.
Special mention must go to Emma Donaghy who showed an outstanding portrayal of Helen, a woman who is clearly so desperate to seduce a soldier, played expertly by Bjarne Lyshede, that she doesn?t even notice that he is paralytic to the point of comatose. Scott O?Brien as the rum-soaked wide-boy Scullery kept us ?on the road? throughout and Miles Orru?s downtrodden brother Curt, and drunkard Chance Peterson were excellent.
Again I wish I could name everyone as they were all worthy of note. Full-marks and a brownie point go also to Andrew Thackeray whose first major direction of YAT at HHP, assisted by Alice Langrish, was superb throughout. Not only did he ensure from start to finish that the strong language was used correctly for the purpose with which it was written, but he brought to us characters who were believable and made me feel for one of the few times at the Playhouse that I was somewhere other than Hampton Hill.
A good, strong, all round production from everyone involved both front and backstage, not forgetting Eileen Baker?s excellent costumes. |
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REVIEWED BY
Lox Lumboni
DATED
March 2001
SOURCE
Richmond and Twickenham Times
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