Preview: Raz

AFTER an incredible run at 2015 Fringe, the award-winning Raz returns to the Capital to play one night only at Assembly Roxy. It's Friday night and Shane's going to hit the town hard.

James Cartwright in Raz

On Monday it’s back to the grind and he starts all over again.

A vivid portrait of the ‘weekend millionaires’ who gym and tan while mum does the laundry is the very real story of a lost generation of young adults living in Britain today - a report published in 2014 by the Office for National Statistics revealed that the number of 20 to 34-year-olds returning to live with their parents has reached the highest level since 1996. That’s almost one in four returning to the parental nest.

Written by Olivier-Award winner Jim Cartwright, best known for The Rise And Fall of Little Voice (which starred Michael Caine, Brenda Blethyn and Jane Horrocks when it was adapted for the big screen in 1998), Raz has been described as a ‘bitingly funny’ and ‘in turn heart-warming and heart-breaking’ commentary on the current culture of booze, drugs and disposable relationships.

Producers of Raz didn’t need to look too far when casting the play’s lead and only role - it’s a solo piece.

Shane, a young factory worker who navigates one man’s place in the world amidst the throes of a booze-fuelled Friday night out in the North of England, is played by James Cartwright, the playwright’s real life son, himself an award-winning actor.

Directed by Anthony Banks, Raz features sound and composition from Ben and Max Ringham and a lighting design by Sam Waddington.

Raz, Assembly Roxy, Roxburgh Place, tonight, 8pm, £12, 0131-623 3001