The original image for this poster was drawn by the British artist and illustrator Ralph Steadman, renowned for his political and social caricatures, cartoons and picture books. Entitled Seasoned First-Nighters and a First-Time Theatregoer it depicts a full house of patrons viewed from the stage whose reactions vary from the somnolent, indifferent and mildly engaged, to the enthralled and astounded first-time theatregoer in the centre of the second row of the stalls. It is titled by the artist and inscribed: 'A Quote:"Theatre is for the bored, the disenchanted, the hangers-on, the dreamless, the frustrated and anyone else who doesn't know how to entertain themselves" (a critic- circa 1980)'

The Tricycle Theatre was founded in 1972 as the Wakefield Tricycle Company by the Canadians Ken Chubb and Shirley Barrie when they started performing lunch-time theatre in the Pindar of Wakefield pub, near London's King's Cross. The company commissioned and produced work by new playwrights, produced evening shows at the Bush, the King's Head and the Open Space theatres, and in 1974 started touring the UK. When the company opened their own community theatre in Kilburn High Road in 1980, funded by the Arts Council and the Greater London Council, Ken Chubb asked Ralph Steadman if he would do something to help their fund-raising. He drew this cartoon that was reproduced in the programme for their first production on 16 September 1980, and for over thirty years could be bought from the box office as a postcard or poster. In April 2018 the theatre changed its name to Kiln Theatre.