A DRAMA company set to stage their play this week has had to postpone the performance because a member of the cast is in a cast.

The leading lady took the advice of 'break a leg' quite literally when she slipped over at rehearsals and ended up in hospital.

Carol Dickens, from Beckett Drama Company in Waltham Abbey, has her foot in a cast after she slipped over during rehearsals and broke her ankle, just two weeks before the opening night.

She said: "We practise at the community centre and there were a few pages where I wasn't on so I rushed to the loo and fell over.

"I got to hospital and was told I couldn't put any weight on it for 36 weeks and I said I can't because I'm in a play."

But the director decided to postpone the production until September to wait for Carol, rather than have someone else read her lines.

She said: "It was the last rehearsal and I was meant to be going on a cruise around the Mediterranean with my husband before the play started, but I had to cancel that as well.

"We had been practicing for three months and everyone had done so well. It's pretty rotten. Tickets had been sold, banners and flyers had been printed and everyone was all set for it to go ahead."

The play, called Outside Edge, is set in a cricket pavilion and should have been on stage at the town hall in Waltham Abbey for three nights this week.

Mrs Dickens said: "When the director saw my ankle he said it looked like it had been hit with a cricket ball. I'm hoping it won't take long to recover.

"It's going to cost the company so much money because we will have to rehearse again nearer the time, and print new flyers and tickets. But it's so nice of them to wait for me. It's just such bad timing, so close to the opening night."

The play will now be staged on September 24, 25 and 26*

*Providing no other members of the cast are in a cast.