THE ROAD HOME

Juliet Stevenson's performance of THE ROAD HOME is nothing short of astonishing. Tremain's protagonist, Lev, emigrating from an Eastern Bloc country to work in the UK, speaks with a Slavic accent. In his homesick struggles to survive in a foreign culture completely different from his expectations, he meets people with Qatari, Irish, posh-Brit, old-lady, drunk-man, Chinese, Cockney, and young-girl voices. Stevenson renders each so impeccably, and makes them so distinct in timbre and personality as well as accent, that you utterly lose track of the fact that it's all created by one actor. Most of all, she delivers a moving story of one immigrant who occasionally does unwise or dopey things but never loses our interest or sympathy. Cause for celebration. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2009]