The Vicar of Dibley

The stage play “The Vicar of Dibley” was written by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter and adapted from the award-winning BBC television sitcom of the same name, created by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer; which aired from the 10th November 1994 to the 1st January 2000, and ran for three series with some specials, the most recent of which aired on 23rd  December 2020.The stories they used in the series were based on the experiences of the Reverend Joy Carroll, one of England’s first female priests who was ordained following the 1993 changes in the Church of England, that permitted the ordination of women. This wonderful comedy program has stood the test of time and is still well known and very popular today.

 Set in a small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, the play is based on a combination of three well known episodes of the series, namely ‘The Arrival’, ‘Love and Marriage’ and ‘The Easter Bunny.’ The story begins on a cold and wet night, and we find ourselves in the Parish Hall of Dibley where David Horton Chairman of the Parish Council is holding a meeting of the Council. As the meeting closes it becomes clear that they are also waiting for the arrival of their new vicar due to the death of the previous incumbent in that position. The council are discussing what type of person the Bishop will send them, when suddenly a stranger in a yellow raincoat, and carrying several suitcases enters the hall, they take off their raincoat and announce that they are the new vicar and to David’s shock and horror the new vicar turns out to be a woman called Geraldine Granger.What follows is some wonderful comedic adventures and great entertainment.

Directed by Paul Carr with Assistant Director Chris King this was an excellent laugh aloud experience produced by CADOS. When we go to see a play based on a well-known TV series, we expect to see and maybe unintentionally compare the play and cast with the series and characters that we associate with the show, and like most TV shows this sitcom produced some iconic eccentric characters that have some wonderful crazy idiosyncrasies and are loved by the public. So, producing performances that are still recognizable to the audience, and are close to the characters we know, while still including some of their own interpretation and not just producing an impression is important, and I have to say that all the stellar cast pulled this off wonderfully. The Vicar, Geraldine Granger, was originally played in the T.V. series by that indomitable huge comic talent Dawn French, who is a hard act to follow. However, happily  Jade Ingram rose to the occasion of being the central character which holds the production together and gave a strong confident performance of a down-to-earth chocoholic modern vicar, producing her own very loveable version of this iconic character. David Walker was very good, and suitably pompous in the role of privileged Parish Council Chairman David Horton who is also the domineering father of Hugo Horton, who was played with an especially good characterisation by Nick Cox, Hugo seamed to be in a permanent state of bewilderment and is in love with dim and ditsy but lovable Verger Alice Tinker, played superbly by Rebecca Moran who was spot on with the spirit of Alice’s character. Rebecca performed the famous and very funny conversation with Geraldine “I can’t believe it’s not butter” excellently and worked well with Jade. Local bachelor farmer Owen Newitt whose main conversation focused on his toiletry habits and worried more about his animals than people, was brought to life excellently by Stephen Clipston. Paul James was spot on with his no, no, no, yes timing as the indecisive and slightly confused Jim Trot, his rendition of Jim’s best man’s speech “Knowing you Knowing me” was really entertaining and very funny. Culinary expert, unique floral arranger and church organist, Letitia Cropley was enjoyably played by the talented Siobhan Edge , the mixture of foods her character comes up with are still very funny even though I had heard them before, and Ian Coggin managed to capture the character of the pedantic and rather boring parish council secretary Frank Pickle excellently. All the cast had brilliant comic timing and stayed in character all the way through the performance.There were also some nice supportive cameo performances such as a lovely comedy interlude with four very young actors as school children visiting Geraldine, they were Charlotte Bruce as Carla, Lucy Carr as Lizzie, Mason Carr as Matthew and Charlie Cowan as Cameron. Then we had Anna Spencer as the woman in the church, this small interlude still makes me laugh even though I have seen this part many times. Diction and accents along with projection was good meaning we could follow the story and the jokes, and the pace of the play was exactly right which helped with comic timing.

There was one main set with a turntable in the centre which was used to change scenes between the parish hall and the Vicarage which meant scenes were changed quickly and smoothly, well done to Stage Manager Anna Spencer and all the stage crew, set builders, and set painters. However,  just to be constructive I did think that although this was a very innovative idea it resulted in a lot of the action taking place towards the back of the stage however my enjoyment of the production was not affected in anyway.With good props including lots of chocolate and excellent sound and lighting by Paul Carr and Ben Holden the experience was all very authentic and entertaining, I really enjoyed the background music pre performance  and during the interval and along with costumes that ranged from ministerial garb, to Alice’s wedding dress with fairylight headdress, the bridesmaids and page boys were dressed as Teletubbies and wonderful working Daleks which caused much hilarity in the audience, this all added to the success and enjoyment of the production

Congratulations to all involved in bringing this very entertaining and comedic production to the stage, all the audience were enjoying themselves very much and thank you for inviting us we had a great evening.

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