Road

Road

Road directed by David Berthold drew strong critical response but only average audience attendance. Set in working class Lancashire on the theme of unemployment, this production of Jim Cartwright’s play was innovative, risky contemporary theatre. Adrian Kiernander wrote in The Australian:

David Berthold’s production uses rough energy, loud noise and desperate commitment to give a disturbing account of this script, which is always on the verge of shaking itself to pieces. Its fragmented structure is reflected in Alan Swapp’s design, where the audience is deprived of the stability of fixed seating in the midst of squalid surroundings.

It makes huge demands on an audience’s understanding and concentration, and its final vision is bleak … if this production can find the audience it deserves, and link up with the anger, frustration and despair which is now rife, it stands a chance of provoking debate and action. It might stimulate the Australian theatre to take itself and its immediate social responsibilities more seriously.[i]

Writer: Christine Comans