Hurstpierpoint Players return to the stage

Spokeswoman Anne Hopper said: “If you think that a play about cricket wouldn’t interest you because a) you don’t like the game or b) you run a village cricket team and know everything about the game, you might like to pay a visit Outside Edge because you’re in for a very pleasant surprise.

“Playwright Richard Harris is quoted as saying that he ‘knew next to nothing’ about the sport but used the ploy of an intense inter-village cricket match as the basis for his comedy during which the captain Roger seems to always be one man short of a team – and desperate to keep his faithful wife Miriam from finding out what happened last season in Dorking!

“The cast of nine in this lively Hurst Festival production by the Players, directed by Annette Squire, uncover the reasons for this discrepancy, some involving extra-marital affairs, real or imagined, which among other human failings are revealed with increasing hilarity.

“With all Covid restrictions now lifted, the Players can sell all the available seats this time and open their ‘pavilion’, otherwise known as the theatre bar, for thirsty cricket watchers at half-time.

“And Miriam’s interval teas might just persuade the Sussex Cricket Association to have a re-think about recently published plans to discontinue theirs!

“If you are theatre minded or cricket minded, both or neither, but are now in the mood for some light-hearted entertainment, why not bowl along to the Hurst Festival box office at the Players Theatre on Thursday to Saturday mornings.

“Or you can book online at the festival website: www.hurstfestival.org.

“You’ll not be on a sticky wicket. The cast have all those covered, but you might just bowl a maiden over in the theatre bar in the interval.”

Performances are at 7.45pm from September 13-18.