Jim Cartwright’s famous 1980’s play is brought up to the 21st Century for it’s 21st Anniversary with a production from Pilot Theatre and directed by Marcus Romer. This abstract story follows the inhabitants of the poverty that is ‘ROAD’, over the night and in to the early hours we are taken on a journey of drunken mishaps and misfortune, sexual passion and perversion.

Over half way into its tour, this piece of brilliantly crafted theatre is still extremely fresh. The stage was a big part to the plays success, with very effective use of pre-filmed images as well as live from surveillance camera around the stage and in the foyer, that was projected onto the stage and onto a gauze. The original soundtrack too gave an underlying beat, edge and tension, which emphasised the gripping emotions of the piece.

The first act was essentially a group of monologues linked together with the Scully. This piece was originally written as a promenared play the lack of movement is compensated by the movement of the revolve of the set in the centre which “captures a tenement block in woeful decrepitude, crumbling breeze-block and plaster, furniture threadbare through nightly assaults of Chinese takeaway, vomit and tears”. Some of the scenes and lines were updated for it’s modern day revival using references to Big Brother and Pop Idol which sat along well with the original text. The cast plays the sad as well as the comedy to full potential.

The interval was a play of its own with the foyer doubling as a ‘night-club’ with in the ‘Road’, and the actors acting their characters, including the very entertaining dodge DJ called ‘Bisto’. The second act became more of a series of sketches, and the sad mood of the first act lifted somewhat and the actors also engaged the audience climbing through the seats and over the audience. The last scene was well achieved in a surreal ‘Clock Work Orange’ kind of way, with a powerful music and film display projected over the actors.

The main criticism is with the script itself - the monologues seemed to be a little too long for the audiences' attention. And the monologue format perhaps became repetitive and only changed after the interval.

The actor’s too were on the whole amazing, versatile and playing a selection of parts each, which continually kept up the energy of the play. The actors were superb, with Karl Haynes and Nicky Goldie really standing out above the other actors.

This is a Spellbinding production that draws heavily on Brechtian influence and is very innovative using the most up-to-date technologies successfully where other companies have failed. It is one of the best productions of the season and well worth the journey…

8 ½ /10