One for the Road. Harold Pinter: Plays 4. (2005) By Harold Pinter. Faber and Faber

Harold Pinter. Writer of  'One for the Road'

Key Words Torture, totalitarian, whisky, rape, integration, questioning, God, power,  abuse, murder, psychopath, family, dictatorship. alcoholism

Play Length: 15 min's

Time 1980's

Accents General English 

Place Unspecified 

Set A desk in a room, two chairs, a drinks cabinet of whisky, two glasses. 

Specificity The play could be set in any country or place, using any language. The set cost of be minimalism or naturalistic set. The playing age of the characters is flexible from 16 upwards. The play is non-gender specific, it could be played by all males and all females. 

Characters (3 male/1 female)

Nicolas 40-50

Victor 30

Nicky 7

Gila 30

Synopsis

'One for the Road' is not one of Pinter's well known plays, it is only fifteen minutes long, but certainly packs a punch. The play is set in an unspecified interrogation and torture prison, led by Nicolas, or "God", as he describes himself. 

Victor, his wife Gila and his son Nicky have broken the rules of the unspecified, totalitarian state that they find themselves in. One by one, Nicolas interrogates them all, as they suffer a barrage of unpredictable questions and statements. 

At the end of the play Victor is released, Gila is imprisoned and it is made clear that Nicky has been executed. The very last line of dialogue reads as, Your son? oh don't worry about him, he was a little prick. (Pinter, 2005, pg247)

Blackout

Monologues and duologues etc...

Pages 223-224 (Harold Pinter Plays: 4, 2004)

Length 7 mins (Can be cut down)

Character(s) Nicolas

Type Monologue

Synopsis Nicolas is interrogating Victor. Victor is largely a silent character with occasional interjections. Nicolas highlights his authority and psychopathic tendencies with a barrage of unanswerable questions, calling himself 'God' and taking every opportunity to fuel his alcohol addiction, by topping up his whisky glass. The nature of the monologue is sinister and unpredictable.

Snippet

Note: there are some interjecting lines from Victor, but the speech runs well with cuts.

Nicolas: You probably think I'm part of a predictable, formal, long established pattern...silent, introspective, coiled like a puma.  No, no. it's quite like that. I run the place. God Speaks through me. I'm referring to the Old Testament God by the way,..Everyone respects me here, including you I take it?...


What a good looking woman your wife is. You're a very lucky man. Tell me.....one for the road, I think....

He pours whisky 

I hear you have a lovely house...Someone told me some of my boys kicked it around a bit. Pissed on the rugs, that sort of thing. I wish they wouldn't do that...but you know what its like...

Links to Writer

You can purchase 'One for the Road' via Amazon and Faber and Faber websites. Alternatively please click on the following links:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harold-Pinter-Monologue-Precisely-Umbrellas/dp/0571288405/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510076976&sr=8-1&keywords=harold+pinter+4

https://www.faber.co.uk/9780571288403-harold-pinter-plays-4.html

Other Pinter plays:

The Caretaker, Mountain language, Betrayal

Written by Joshua Ashley-Smith