One for the Road

One for the Road “Starts... with the mid-life hero torn between the security of married life in a dormer bungalow on a northern housing estate and dreams of being a rucksacked super-tramp. Mr Russell writes with knowledgeable venom about a world where Beethoven Underpass leads to Wagner Walkway and where anyone who doesn't join Weight Watchers or the Ramblers Club is regarded as a social deviant.”

Francis King, Sunday Telegraph

Original Production

Contact Theatre, Manchester. 1976

Director - Caroline Smith

Cast

Dennis - David Ross

Pauline - Joanna Mackie

Roger - Kenneth Alan Taylor

Jane - Judith Barker

Commissioned by the Manchester Contract Theatre, the play was originally entitled Tupperware Man. Following complaints from the Tupperware Company and, eventually, the threat of legal action, the play was retitled, opening as Painted Veg and Parkinson – the first of a number of titles under which the play would appear before finally becoming known as One For The Road (not to be confused with the Harold Pinter play of the same name!)

National Tour, 1978

Producer - Bob Swash for the Robert Stigwood Group

Director - Mike Ockrent

Cast

Dennis - Alun Armstrong

Pauline - Elizabeth Estensen

Roger - Philip Jackson

Jane - Prunella Scales

Intended as a pre-West End tour, One For The Road played various theatres throughout the UK.

There were, though, still issues with finding the right title and during the tour the play was variously seen as, Dennis the Menace, Happy Returns, Slip Road, Anyone For Dennis, O’Pioneer, and finally One For The Road.