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Outside Edge

Performance Dates 8th to 12th July 2008

Directed by Colin Deaney

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 wives and girlfriends of his players help and hinder to devastating and hilarious effects.

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.

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.

MIRIAM                   Julie Egleton - Much put upon wife of Roger. Middle aged.

ROGER                      Mark Williams - Club captain. Middle aged.

BOB                           Tim Proctor - Full of anxieties, trying to balance a wife and an ex-wife. Middle aged.

DENNIS                    Tony Long - Salesman, with an improved accent, slightly seedy. Middle aged.

MAGGIE                    Jude Rogers - Recently married to Kevin.  30 ish.

KEVIN                       Adam Hurst - Bit of a boozer, untidy. 30 ish.

GINNIE                     Anne Lankaster - Bob’s wife, attractive, middle aged.

ALEX                          Rob Wratten - Ex public school. 30 ish.

SHARON                    Penny Harper - Picked up in a disco by Alex, wishes she was still there.

The Thame Players Theatre Company Ltd

Patrons: Sir Tim Rice, Bruce Alexander

Registered Company No. 4389665. Registered Charity No. 1092559