Outside Edge

A cricket-based comedy by Richard Harris.

The play, BATS' 88th production, will be directed by David Spear.

Below is the advertising poster.

Synopsis of the play (from Samuel French)

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.