Your Name's Not God, It's Edgar

A comedy about the risks associated with excessive religion. Set in Manchester, railway cleaner Edgar (Alfred Lynch) is faced with a crisis. Loyal to his widowed dad (Jimmy Jewel) and going out with girlfriend Phoebe (Yootha Joyce) for the previous eight years, he admits to himself that he has never bad a woman. He seeks counsel at work from his mate Trevor (Richard Warwick), who advised him to travel on a dirty weekend to London. This is a major step, but Edgar takes it, and ends up sharing digs with Trevor in Tottenham. By a stroke of luck he ends up meeting a woman Mrs Bewley (Yootha Joyce), and his life changes forever. The play concentrates on the extremes of Christianity, of a belief in infinite goodness and the sins associated with doing wrong. Edgar is kept on a short leash by his father and Phyllis - so much so that the London trip is perceived as a release for him. When he returns to Manchester, he has changed completely for the better: meanwhile Phyllis and his father have fallen in love. Clearly a change is as good as a rest for everyone.

Edgar Lunt is in a rut. With a poorly dad in bed and always on the hunt for sherbet fountains, a girlfriend of eight years who makes him lunches he can't stand and gives away, and a job cleaning railway carriages, it is no wonder he dreams. But any pleasure comes at a cost, in Edgar's view.

The play centres around what happens when Edgar breaks his routine and leaves his comfortable surroundings to go south with his workmate, a student called Trevor. In London he is slow to unwind but eventually finds a kindred spirit he can share his philosophy of life with.

Lovely performances from Alfred Lynch as Edgar, Yootha Joyce as Phoebe his girlfriend, Jimmy Jewel as his dad, and Richard Warwick as Trevor life this drama above the run of the mill. It provides both a snapshot of a life gone by and looks to the future, as well as making us smile at a likable central character.