Not quite Cricket

Autumn and Winter means rugby season here in New Zealand but cricket was in the air.  We went to The Studio to see their current production, “Outside Edge”.  This comedy is all about the members of the Hambledon District Cricket Club in the English countryside trying to win their game while sorting out their various marital problems.

The Studio, our small local theatre

Roger, the captain, panics at the slightest hurdle as he tries valiantly to keep his team together as they come and go at the pavilion.  His wife Miriam is the rock behind him, but of course he can not see that.  “Chop, chop”, he chivvies her along as he lurches from one crisis to the next.  Then there is Bob, married to Ginnie but always sneaking away to do odd jobs for his previous wife.  Nothing is a secret for long and when Ginnie arrives at the game the others try hard to keep her from discovering  that her husband is absent.   This is Maggie’s first time at the pavilion to watch her new husband Kevin spin a ball or two.  When Kevin gets a blister on his spinning finger, Maggie cuddles her diminutive husband while the rest of the team nearly falls apart.  Added to the mix is ladies man Dennis, whose wife has had enough of him and sets his new car alight in the car park, and upper class young lawyer Alex, the best player on the team and makes sure everyone knows it, and his latest girlfriend who feels so out of place at the game she spends her time locked in the toilet.

This funny play was first staged at Hampstead Theatre, then spent some time at the West End.  Finally, the play enjoyed success as a TV play starring such greats as the late Paul Eddington, and Prunella Scales.    All in all it was a very amusing play about this beloved English game, and a great night out.