London Road
classified 15Please note: This was screened in Aug 2015
Rufus Norris’s feature film adaptation of his acclaimed National Theatre production is an utterly gripping, macabre and very moving cine-opera in a reportage verbatim style, that deals with the 2006 Ipswich serial murders and their complex psychological effect on the inhabitants of London Road. An addictive forensic thriller set to music and singing (and starring Olivia Colman and Tom Hardy), this very British look at a communities' tragedy is nothing short of a triumph.
In 2006 the town of Ipswich was shattered by the discovery of the bodies of five women. The residents of London Road - an area that had become the city’s red-light district - had struggled for years with frequent soliciting and kerb-crawling on their street. When Steve Wright, the occupant of no. 79, was arrested, charged and then convicted of the murders, the community grappled with what it meant to be at the epicentre of this tragedy.
With music by Adam Cork and remarkable dialogue and lyrics by the verbatim-theatre pioneer Alecky Blythe, based on her own interviews with the local community, with media reporters and with the women who worked as prostitutes on London Road, this is a film oratorio. A cinema piece that does not hide its stage origins, but rather flaunts an artificiality and theatricality as part of its sheer audacious effect. And in the process, this most unlikely of musicals, reveals the ways in which even the darkest experiences can engender a greater sense of our mutual dependence.