RSC actors and crew will be taking on some extra work next week, staging the On The Edge Fringe Festival 2005.

From Monday, at The Other Place on Waterside, there will be the chance to see actors from the current shows - Julius Caesar and The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Beauty and the Beast - give special performances of plays, readings, poetry, music and musical theatre.

This year's fringe festival will comprise nine separate events. There will be two short plays - Paradox, a 'brutal comedy' by award-winning Serbian Nebojsa Romcevic and Silence by Moira Buffini, who won the Writer's Guild Award in 1992, and whose play Dinner was nominated for an Olivier Award in 2003.

The programme, which fits around main show performance times, is as follows:

SILENCE (a play by Moira Buffini): January 31, 11pm, February 4, 2.30pm, February 6, 2.30pm

PARADOX (a Serbian play by Nebojsa Romcevic): January 31, 2.30pm, February 1, 11pm, February 4, noon.

BEHIND THE LINES - A look beneath the surface (poetry and prose with music): February 1, 2.30pm, February 3, 11am.

FATSO and MYTHOMANIA (double bill: Fatso, four short stories; Mythomania, rehearsed reading of a short play): February 1, 3.45pm, February 2, 11pm, February 5, 11am.

ROSEBUD (a one man show by Mark Jenkins): February 4, 11pm.

SUPPERTIME and DR FOSTER (double bill: A dramatic song of the Last Supper by Nia Lynn; a musical comedy): February 2, 2.30pm, February 3, 11pm, February 5, 11pm.

LAST NIGHT ON THE EDGE (a musical evening): February 6, 7.30pm.

Tickets, £5, are available only on the door before each performance, not from the box office or in advance. For information, contact the RSC Stage Door on 01789 296655.