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A review by rebeccafell
Road by Jim Cartwright
2.0
“Why’s the world so tough? It’s like walking through meat in high heels”
I chose to read this as one of my texts for A-Level Drama and Theatre Studies and, as a Northerner, I loved the premise of this play; A play that focused on the working class hardships of the tumultuous latter years of the Thatcher era in the North. However, I feel like the writing on the most part in this is extremely exaggerated and, on some levels, grotesque. Trying to mirror typical working class Lancastrian dialect, Cartwright strings together slurs of profanities and harsh stereotypes to reflect the tensions in the north during the 80s. Whilst I can see why he did this- to reflect the hardships of mass unemployment and poverty- I feel that it was unneeded. Maybe this is because I come from a different class background in the North, but all the same, with writing like Cartwright’s I’m not surprised that the Southern stereotype towards people who live in the north is derived from feeling threatened by supposed northern aggression. However, on a more positive note, some of the dialect Cartwright actually crafts is superbly accurate, especially Scullery and Louise’s dialogue; in the moments where his writing is accurate, Cartwright brilliantly reflects typical North-Western humour and poignantly satirises Thatcherian society.
I chose to read this as one of my texts for A-Level Drama and Theatre Studies and, as a Northerner, I loved the premise of this play; A play that focused on the working class hardships of the tumultuous latter years of the Thatcher era in the North. However, I feel like the writing on the most part in this is extremely exaggerated and, on some levels, grotesque. Trying to mirror typical working class Lancastrian dialect, Cartwright strings together slurs of profanities and harsh stereotypes to reflect the tensions in the north during the 80s. Whilst I can see why he did this- to reflect the hardships of mass unemployment and poverty- I feel that it was unneeded. Maybe this is because I come from a different class background in the North, but all the same, with writing like Cartwright’s I’m not surprised that the Southern stereotype towards people who live in the north is derived from feeling threatened by supposed northern aggression. However, on a more positive note, some of the dialect Cartwright actually crafts is superbly accurate, especially Scullery and Louise’s dialogue; in the moments where his writing is accurate, Cartwright brilliantly reflects typical North-Western humour and poignantly satirises Thatcherian society.