Late in 2006, a truck driver named Steve Wright was arrested in Ipswich, a river town in Suffolk, England, for the murders of five prostitutes who had offered themselves to men along the town’s London Road, near a newly built sports stadium. The usual media circus ensued, sullying the town’s reputation, before Wright was convicted on all counts in February 2008 and sentenced to life in prison. In the weeks leading up to his trial and afterward, experimental playwright Alecky Blythe interviewed the killer’s immediate neighbors, the reporters covering the case, and even a few sex workers, returning to London with more than 100 hours of recordings. She might easily have turned this material into a radio documentary, but instead, collaborating with composer Adam Cork and director Rufus Norris of Britain’s National Theatre, Blythe turned it into a stage musical, London Road, which premiered in 2011 to great acclaim and has since been adapted to the screen.
After Steven Wright is apprehended, Norris develops this powerful use of chorus into something even more complex, showing how the neighbors resent the media intrusion but also hang on coverage of the case. Julie, Gordon, and Gordon’s wife react coldly when they emerge from their homes en route to a community meeting and find TV newsman Simon Newton (Michael Shaeffer) preparing to tape a report outside Wright’s house (the front window has been boarded up, and kids have drawn a little demon cartoon on the wood plank). Over a spooky dub beat, Newton struggles to recite his lines, stumbling again and again on a long sentence involving DNA science and semen (a word he isn’t allowed to use on the air until ten o’clock). Meanwhile, at the community center, the neighbors agree that Wright is the culprit but fear he’ll go free for lack of any physical evidence. Suddenly Newton’s report comes on TV; they all gather to hear him deliver his piece perfectly, then repeat it in chorus.
Directed by Rufus Norris
