OUTSIDE
EDGE by Richard
Harris
Venue: Watford Palace 1980
Director: Sebastian Graham Jones
Venue: Watford Palace 1980
Director: Sebastian Graham Jones
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Set
in a cricket pavilion, Outside Edge deals with an eventful Saturday
afternoon in the lives of five men and four women. Roger struggles to
keep together his team to play against the British Railways Maintenance
Division Yeading East, while the player's wives and girlfriends help
and hinder to devastating and hilarious effects. While the play is
ostensibly about cricket, it’s actually about relationships - and
Harris is soon lifting the lid on all manner of angst and extra-marital
shenanigans among the lead characters.
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| Cast |
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| Miriam | Jennifer Wilson |
| Roger | James Ellis |
| Bob | Paul Gale |
| Dennis | Norman Rossington |
| Maggie | Maggie Guess |
| Kevin | Ian Godfrey |
| Ginnie | Imogen Hassall |
| Alex | Neil France |
| Sharon | Amanda Richardson |
With its cracking comic script,
absence of set changes and a cast
almost equally split between men and women, Outside Edge is not
surprisingly a perennial favourite among amateur drama groups and their
audiences. First staged at Hampstead Theatre with a cast
including Maureen
Lipman and Julia McKenzie, Richard Harris’s hit comedy enjoyed a hugely
successful West End run before being made into a TV play starring the
late Paul Eddington as Roger. Later still, a TV mini series was
spawned, featuring the characters that make up the cricket team
captained by Roger.
The action takes place at the cricket pavilion before and during a match, with the pitch being offstage where the audience is sitting. Roger has enough trouble assembling his cricket eleven but these complications are nothing compared to the trouble that develops with various wives and girlfriends during the course of the play. Bob has trouble between wife and ex-wife, Alex’s girlfriend locks herself in the loo, Dennis flirts with anything wearing a skirt and Roger’s wife Miriam (Mim) – champion tea maker – rebels against his authority and uncovers his unfortunate peccadillo in Dorking while playing an ‘away match’!
The action takes place at the cricket pavilion before and during a match, with the pitch being offstage where the audience is sitting. Roger has enough trouble assembling his cricket eleven but these complications are nothing compared to the trouble that develops with various wives and girlfriends during the course of the play. Bob has trouble between wife and ex-wife, Alex’s girlfriend locks herself in the loo, Dennis flirts with anything wearing a skirt and Roger’s wife Miriam (Mim) – champion tea maker – rebels against his authority and uncovers his unfortunate peccadillo in Dorking while playing an ‘away match’!