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On a hot Sunday afternoon in August the Nightwatchmen amateur cricket club are scheduled to play hated rivals Farringden, skippered by the obnoxious Bernard. One by one the players arrive, forced to change into their cricket whites on the boundary line because years ago vandals burned down the pavilion - but the team still traditionally take to the field by the pavilion steps anyway. Then a new face appears, club member Gary cannot play and has sent his neighbour Reg in his stead. Reg is a rather boorish character who soon rubs the other players up the wrong way, but is welcomed anyway to make up the numbers. As they prepare for the first over, the players spend the time smoking, telling jokes, discussing their ailments with doctor Theo, and debating love, politics and the correct interpretation of the LBW rule.
Then the match begins. How will our team fare? Can their makeshift team defeat their talented opponents or will rain stop play?
The story explores the state of the Nation through the medium of the British obsession with the game of cricket and the diversity of the characters that come together to play it. The players on the Nighwatchmen team come from all walks of life, Thiz is an aging rock star, Theo is a GP, Nick is a hindu, Clive is an actor, Sean is a journalist, and mouthy Reg is a Telecoms worker and fan of Enoch Powell.
All of the action takes place on the boundary of an imaginary cricket pitch that stretches out into the auditorium. To stage left are the steps of the burnt down pavilion and just behind that a small clump of bushes - well the players do need to pee don't they! The action takes place before the game, during the intervals, and whilst the home team are batting and the majority of the players are waiting on the boundary before going off to bat one by one.
Whilst cricket is at the centre of the plot, you don't need to be a fan of game (I confess to finding it deadly dull) to enjoy the play, although I rather suspect that any amateur cricketers would get an extra buzz from recognising themselves or their teammates in the characterisations. And with an all male cast the world view given is an essentially masculine one, but again the humour is universal enough to easily cross the gender barrier and includes one or topical observations that seemed to particularly strike a chord with the female members of the audience. At times the dialogue jibes at youth culture, and in particular the gradual suppression of 'Britishness'.
Devoted cricketer Will, played by Robert East, gives every impression of being a world-weary liberal until he surprises his friends by launching into an empassioned diatribe on the evils of Liberalism destroying British culture and blindly surrendering to radical Islam. Ostentatiously wealthy Rock star Thiz, charismatically portrayed by Sean Murray, is the joker in the pack, wisecracking at every opportunity and regaling the other team members with stories that were funny more in the delivery than the content. John Lightbody played actor Clive in stereotypically 'luvvy' style whilst also worthy of mention was the excellent performance of Fred Ridgway as the casually bigoted Reg.
One of the strengths of the play is that, whilst they make an unlikely group, all of the characters are very real and essentially likeable. The banter between them is, for the most part, lively and jocular, accented by sudden mood changes from moments of tension and bitterness to genuine caring and sympathy. Although a very wordy play, it keeps our attention throughout and such is our empathy with the characters that when the game in in progress we are really willing them on to win.
A very funny examination of the English way of life.