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Writer's picturePaul Genty

Back on the Road



Oldham Coliseum's new season from September 16 starts powerfully with the company's revival of seminal Eighties comic tragedy, Road.

Farnworth playwright Jim Cartwright’s powerful snapshot of Lancashire life in Margaret Thatcher’s England is as relevant today as it was over 30 years ago; you could argue that today's society is a direct descendant of government policy of that period.

Cartwright's raw but funny, poetic language belies the degradation and tedium of everyday life of its time. In Road 1987 there are no jobs and little hope, but there’s always a party to lift you for a few hours.

Road first premiered at the Royal Court in London in 1986 and has been staged around the world many times since. Now considered a modern classic, the play won several awards in its early life and was even voted third-best play of the 1980s – and one of the top 50 plays of theatre history. It certainly set the relatively elusive Cartwright's reputation and led to worldwide hits such as the Rise and Fall of Little Voice.

The Oldham cast will feature Richard J Fletcher as mostly-drunken narrator Scullery - quite a change from his more familiar Coliseum role as the annual panto dame, Paula Lane (Kylie Platt in Coronation Street) as Lane, Will Travis (This is England 86, 88 & 90, Where the Heart is and Coronation Street), John Askew, Zoe Iqbal, Shaban Dar, Alyce Liburd, Kofi Dennis and Claire Storey.

Director Gitika Buttoo said, “Road is such an iconic story and 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 classic captures the grim reality of what people's lives look like when the system has failed. But you'll have the best night out too with these buoyant, likeable characters."

Road is at Oldham Coliseum from September 16-October 1.

More information and tickets here

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