Stylistically speaking, Jim Cartwright's debut play, "Road," retains notable theatricality. This Samuel Beckett Award winner, which ranked No. 36 in the Royal National Theatre's survey of the 100 most significant plays of the 20th century, has been a frequent regional offering since its 1986 Royal Court premiere.
A fervent indictment of Thatcherism, "Road" is red meat for thespians and designers. Those in WolfPack Production Company's environmental revival at 2100 Square Feet devour it like, well, ravenous wolves.
The impoverished Lancashire ambience carries through from sidewalk to lobby to director Kevin Will, Tim Mann and Wendy Passmore's brick-and-sheet-metal set. This, aided by Jenna Sjunneson McDanold's lighting and Lindsay Jones' sound, becomes a functional dance hall during intermission.
Characters and audience systemically interface, defying structural authority in an oblique blur of agitprop, poetry and ribald jargon. Our guide on this tour of British devolution is derelict Scullery (the affably maniacal Thom Sanford).
His stalwart colleagues mostly play multiple roles, with different groupings on alternate nights. At the reviewed performance, standouts included Susan Pingleton's barfly mom, Marc Hart's skin lad, Melinda Skilondz's disco crone, Lauren Maher's and Kate McKiernan's gal pals, David Ackert's sloshed soldier and Chris Schultz's and Daryl Dickerson's hunger strikers.
Yet the ensemble commitment only sporadically counters Will's erratic tempos, which emphasize Cartwright's dank lyricism at the expense of momentum. The resulting sluggishness, combined with certain dated aspects in this era of Tony Blair, creates occasional sinkholes along the admirable points of interest on this thoroughfare.
-- David C. Nichols
"Road," 2100 Square Feet Theater, 5615 San Vicente Blvd., L.A. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Feb. 9. Mature audiences. $15; $12 with food donation to L.A. Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness. (323) 850-8766. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.
*
'Blackbird' a dark view of society
Baylis is 30 and his female companion, known as Froggy, is still in her teens, yet they hobble around their squalid Lower Manhattan apartment as though they're just one step from the grave. Drugs, illness and injury have taken a toll, but still more debilitating are events in the past that have left them broken and seemingly beyond repair in Adam Rapp's "Blackbird," presented by Amok Film and Stage LLC at Theatre/Theater in Hollywood.
