One for the Road

Never mind Great Expectations in the theatre upstairs, we were doing our own salivating in the Studio.

After all, Willy Russell's Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine may be the two finest, funniest British social comedies of our time and here we were, awaiting a rare Russell play.

One For The Road may lack the wit, depth and poignancy of those aforementioned classics, but my lips smacked with relish and my mouth ached with laughter at this wickedly amusing and pungent satire of suburban life, set "some time in the 80s", though it still speaks of our times and, even more so, of our feelings about ageing.

It certainly didn't take long for this forty-something to identify with central character Dennis.

He's now forty and, as his wife Pauline reminds him, he's "a father, a mortgagee and a British Gas shareholder". He doesn't want reminding: Dennis is suffering the angst of domesticity and wants to opt out of a life of cordless telephones, tupperware, jogging and John Denver.

What's a dreamer to do? I would urge you to find out. Willy Russell and the Marlowe Players deserve more than a half-empty theatre. This sparky, smartly scripted play has been well-cast and thoughtfully directed.

It speaks volumes about the pressures of conformity - the great expectations we hold and the realisations that most of us end up in a boxy bungalow life.

For a first-timer, Emily Peers can be proud of her role as Dennis' harried wife. Steve Coley, as likeable neighbour Roger, is evolving into a finely nuanced player, and I adored Marlowes newcomer Jane Jones as Roger's wife - a snootily superior friend, neighbour and counsellor who advises sex to be organised like a kitchen. Above all, Richard Stevenson, as Dennis, is superb - a telling study of a man with middle-aged dread.

Have One For The Road on me...and you'll say "cheers".

Ashley Franklin