Jim Cartwright's play focuses on the people living in a working-class neighbourhood of Lancashire in the 1980s, struggling to manage under Margaret Thatcher's government when there were extremely high levels of unemployment.
In the course of one wild night, our drunken guide Scullery conducts a tour of his derelict Lancashire road and we meet the characters that populate his community.
Capturing both the struggles and the humour inherent in communities such as this at this time, Jim Cartwright has brought to his play his trademark wit and warmth as well as political edge.
Road was Cartwright's theatrical debut and was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre in 1986. It has since become a seminal text for study and performance.
The play is here published as a Methuen Drama Student Edition with commentary and notes by John Bennett, Principal Lecturer in Drama, Dance and Performance Studies at Liverpool Hope University.
