A POWERFUL game changing snapshot of Lancashire life during Margaret Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980s is coming to the stage at Oldham Coliseum Theatre this September.
Jim Cartwright’s Road is still as relevant as today as it was when it was first performed more than 30 years ago.
This is Road, 1987. There are no jobs and little hope but there’s a party to go to that’ll take you from the gutter to the stars and back again. 
Step into the homes of the residents of this Lancashire street and witness real life lived to the extremes, where there’s nowhere left to fall but into a little light relief.
Cartwright’s debut play mixes humour and pathos to portray an all-too-relevant tale of deprivation and the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.
Road first premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1986 and staged there again in 2017.
Now considered a modern classic, it was voted the third best play of the 1980s and in the top 50 best plays in the history of theatre.
The cast at the Coliseum will feature Richard J Fletcher, best known to audiences as a much loved Pantomime dame; Paula Lane (Kylie Platt in Coronation Street); Will Travis (Mr Squires in This is England 86, 88 & 90, Channel 4 and Neil Beckett in Coronation Street, ITV); John Askew (Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Out of Joint); Zoe Iqbal (The Importance of Being Earnest, Dukes Theatre and Lawrence Batley Theatre); Shaban Dar (As You Like It, Northern Broadsides & tour); Alyce Liburd (Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, Oldham Coliseum Theatre), Kofi Dennis (The Wiz, Hope Mill Theatre); and Claire Storey (Adrian Mole The Musical, Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch).
Director Gitika Buttoo said: “Road is such an iconic story and despite being set in the 80s I think it’s more relevant now than ever.
“With the cost of living rising significantly and where we find ourselves as a nation politically and socially – this timely classic captures the grim but true reality of what people’s lives look like when the system has failed.
“But you’ll have the best night out as these buoyant likeable characters take you for a tour down their road!”
• Road will open at Oldham Coliseum Theatre from September 16 – October 1.
Tickets from £17 (Concessions for 16-25 and NUS £7). For more information and to book, visit www.coliseum.org.uk or call the Box Office: 0161 624 2829.
You must be logged in to post a comment.