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.
National Tour 1978: Photo Gallery
Click images below to enlarge
Liverpool Playhouse, 1980
Director - William Gaunt
Cast
Dennis - Barry McCarthy
Pauline - Maggie Ollerenshaw
Roger - Roger Phillips
Jane - Jenny Howe
Liverpool Playhouse, 1986
Director - Danny Hiller
Cast
Dennis - Andrew Schofield
Pauline - Annette Ekblom
Roger - Michael Starke
Jane - Angela Walsh
Lyric Theatre, London. 1987
Producer - Bob Swash
Director - William Gaunt
Cast
Dennis - Russ Abbott
Pauline - Janet Dale
Roger - Michael Angelis
Jane - Elizabeth Bennett