''The Low Road'' is a 2013 play by the American playwright Bruce Norris. It premiered from 23 March to 11 May 2013 at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, Englan ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, in a production directed by

Dominic Cooke Dominic Cooke (born 1966) is an English director and writer. Early life Born in Wimbledon, south London, Cooke was brought up seeing a lot of theatre as a teenager from free theatre tickets provided by the Inner London Education Authority. ...

(his final production as artistic director of that theatre) and with a cast including Bill Paterson,

Johnny Flynn John Patrick Vivian Flynn (born 14 March 1983) is a British actor and singer-songwriter. He has starred as Dylan Witter in the Channel 4 and Netflix television sitcom '' Lovesick'', and portrayed David Bowie in the film '' Stardust''. Flynn i ...

, Kobna-Holdbrook Smith,

Simon Paisley Day Simon Paisley Day (born 13 April 1967), also credited as Simon Day, is an English stage and screen actor. His most recent work includes ''Timon of Athens'' (2008), ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' (2009), ''Private Lives'' (2010), ''Twelfth Night'' ...

Elizabeth Berrington Elizabeth Berrington (born 3 August 1970) is an English actress and graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art; she is best known for her roles as Ruby Fry in '' Waterloo Road'', Paula Kosh in '' Stella'', Mel Debrou in ''Moving Wall ...

Ian Gelder Ian Gelder (born 3 June 1949) is a British actor. He is known for his numerous stage and screen roles, including Mr Dekker in '' Torchwood: Children of Earth'' and Kevan Lannister in ''Game of Thrones''. Career Gelder appeared in the TV movie ...

Ellie Kendrick Eleanor Lucy V. Kendrick (born 8 June 1990) is an English actress best known for playing Anne Frank in the BBC's 2009 miniseries ''The Diary of Anne Frank'', Ivy Morris in the first series of the 2010 revived ''Upstairs Downstairs'', and Meera ...

and

John Ramm John Ramm is an English comedian and actor. He plays Raymond Box in the National Theatre of Brent, and has also appeared on film and television in ''Robin Hood'' (" Will You Tolerate This?"), ''The Palace'', ''Foyle's War'' ("All Clear") and as M ...

. The play focuses on the economic theories of

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...

, who acts as the narrator, first by showing us an 18th-century story in which Jim Trumpett, a young American of illegitimate birth and raised in a brothel, stumbles upon Smith's ''

The Wealth of Nations ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', generally referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is the ''magnum opus'' of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1 ...

'' and becomes a convert to the new theories of capitalism, and then showing us, through a contemporary scene featuring a

G8 summit The Group of Eight (G8) was an inter-governmental political forum from 1997 until 2014. It had formed from incorporating Russia into the Group of Seven, or G7, and returned to its previous name after Russia left in 2014. The forum originated ...

, that our thinking hasn't changed at all. Theater critic Paul Taylor claims that the play was motivated by the

2008 financial crisis 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

and the failure of the banking community to change their behaviors.

References

External links

Royalcourttheatre.com
2013 plays Plays by Bruce Norris Plays set in the United States Fiction set in the 18th century Economics in fiction Fiction set in the 21st century {{2010s-play-stub