Outside Edge
Encyclopedia
Outside Edge is a play by Richard Harris about a cricket team trying to win a game of cricket whilst sorting out their various marital problems.
in London on 24 July 1979 and transferred to the Queen's Theatre
on 11 September 1979. The cast were as follows:
Plot
Roger is having trouble getting a team together for the afternoons fixture against the British Railways Maintenance Division Yeading East but this proves to be the least of anyones worries. Bob is having marriage trouble as he is still doing odd jobs for his ex-wife behind his current wife Ginnie's back. Dennis is also having marital trouble as his wife seems intent on moving house despite the fact they only moved recently. When he finally puts his foot down she sets fire to his new car. Kevin is trying to fight off his over affectionate wife Maggie while at the same time nurse his injured spinning finger and Alex's new girlfriend ends up shutting herself in the toilets having hysterics. Even Roger's seemingly perfect marriage to Miriam hits the skids when she discovers he was playing away from home in more ways than one on a trip to Dorking last year. Just when it seems things can't get any worse for them, it starts to rain.Characters
- Roger: Roger is the team captain who seems to enjoys being the leader more than actually playing cricket. Likes to think of himself as a great leader of men and organiser but in reality most of the organising is done by his wife. Outwardly he and Miriam have a perfect marriage but there is in fact very little in the way of affection between the two and when he says I Love You its usually just to keep her happy and not because he really means it.
- Miriam: Miriam has put up with Roger's cold and almost uncaring attitude for many years and hides all her frustration behind her beaming smile and sunny personality. Miriam is the real organiser of the team but she lets Roger take all the credit for it as she knows it makes him happy. She becomes increasingly frustrated as the play goes on and finds it more and more difficult to keep it in.
- Kevin: The closest thing Roger has to a real friend on the team and the demon spin bowler. Married to Maggie whom he adores despite their explosive relationship. He often behaves like a petulant child sulking when things don't go his way and blowing hot and cold with Maggie over her mothering of him.
- Maggie: Kevin's wife who adores him but often behaves more like his mother than his wife. Like a mother she is very good at dealing with Kevin when he gets in a sulk. Maggie is not a stereotypical woman and is more at home doing DIY than domestic chores.
- Bob: Bob is married to Ginnie but still spends a lot of time with his ex wife doing odd jobs mainly out of guilt. Bob has a constantly guilty expression and never seems to be able to say not to anyone. Despite his faults Bob is a down to earth sort who has no time for pretentious phonies like Dennis and arrogant show offs like Alex.
- Ginnie: Bob's long suffering second wife. She arrives unannounced at the match when Bob has left to visit his ex wife leaving Miriam to try and cover for him. Ginnie's relationship with Roger and Miriam is strained to say the least as Roger was very fond of Bob's ex wife and Ginnie views Miriam as an interfering busy body who spends too much time worrying about other people's marriages and not paying enough attention to her own declining one. It is Ginnie who first hints to Miriam about Roger's little indiscretion in Dorking.
- Dennis: Dennis is a carpet salesman who likes to give the impression he is a well connected self made man. Dennis also fancies himself as a ladies man but just comes across as a letch. In an effort to get people to like him he gets equipment for the team which he gives them at a reduced price claiming he gets it wholesale when in fact he has paid full price.
- Alex: Alex is a lawyer who, perhaps for this reason alone, is much disliked by Bob - although in truth, if only out of jealousy, there are plenty of reasons to dislike this character; if his abundant snobbery and good looks aren't enough, he is also by far the best batsman on the team. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, Alex is also the only unmarried male in the play - but makes up for this with nothing less than a pole dancer girlfriend who, in one comic moment in the play, feels the need to lock herself in the toilets due to her treatment by Alex.
- Sharon: Sharon is Alex's latest girlfriend who like most of the women he tends to attract isn't overly furnished in the brain department. She feels very out of place at the cricket club and the fact that Alex ignores her doesn't make things any better. She ends up locking herself in the toilets and having hysterics.
Original cast
The play opened at the Hampstead TheatreHampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...
in London on 24 July 1979 and transferred to the Queen's Theatre
Queen's Theatre
The Queen's Theatre is a West End theatre located in Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. It opened on 8 October 1907 as a twin to the neighbouring Gielgud Theatre which opened ten months earlier. Both theatres were designed by W.G.R...
on 11 September 1979. The cast were as follows:
- Roger - Richard Kane
- Miriam - Julia McKenzieJulia McKenzieJulia McKenzie is an English actress, singer, and theatre director. She is best-known for her performance in Fresh Fields, but to current television audiences, she is best known for her role as Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's Marple...
- Kevin - Ian Trigger
- Maggie - Maureen LipmanMaureen LipmanMaureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
- Bob - John Kane
- Ginnie - Susan Carpenter
- Dennis - Julian Curry
- Alex - Martin Wimbush
- Sharon - Natalie Forbes
Adaptations
- In 1982 the play was adapted for a one off television showing starring Paul EddingtonPaul EddingtonPaul Eddington CBE was an English actor best known for his appearances in popular television sitcoms of the 1970s and 80s: The Good Life, Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.-Early life:...
as Roger, Prunella ScalesPrunella ScalesPrunella Scales CBE is an English actress, known for her role as Basil Fawlty's long-suffering wife in the British comedy Fawlty Towers and her award-nominated role as Queen Elizabeth II in the British film A Question of Attribution.-Career:Throughout her long career, Scales has usually been cast...
as Miriam, Jonathan LynnJonathan LynnJonathan Lynn is an English actor, comedy writer and director. He is best known for being the co-writer of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.-Personal life:...
as Kevin and Maureen LipmanMaureen LipmanMaureen Diane Lipman CBE is a British film, theatre and television actress, columnist and comedienne.-Early life:Lipman was born in Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Maurice Julius Lipman and Zelma Pearlman. Her father was a tailor; he used to have a shop between the...
as Maggie. The cast also featured Gary WaldhornGary WaldhornGary Waldhorn is a veteran English actor, known for his role as David Horton in the sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, but who has also had a notable television and theatre career.-Theatre:...
as Dennis and Leslie AshLeslie AshLeslie Ash is an English actress, best known for her role in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly. Her book My Life Behaving Badly: The Autobiography was published in 2007....
as Sharon.
- In the mid 1990s HarrisRichard Harris (television writer)Richard Harris is a prolific British television writer, most active from the early 1960s to the mid-1990s. He writes primarily for the crime and detecitve genres, having contributed episodes of series like The Avengers, The Saint, The Sweeney, Armchair Mystery Theatre, and Target...
adapted the play into a sitcom on ITV starring Robert DawsRobert DawsRobert Daws is an English actor. He is most notable for a variety of roles he has played in television dramas.-Career:Daws played Tuppy Glossop in the early 1990s version of Jeeves and Wooster...
as Roger, Brenda BlethynBrenda BlethynBrenda Anne Blethyn, OBE is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
as Miriam, Timothy SpallTimothy SpallTimothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
as Kevin and Josie LawrenceJosie LawrenceJosie Lawrence is a British comedienne and actress best known for her work with the Comedy Store Players improvisational troupe, the television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? and more recently her role as Manda Best in EastEnders....
as Maggie.