Vicar of Dibley

The stage play “The Vicar of Dibley” is written by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter and is adapted from the original multi award-winning BBC television sitcom of the same name created by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer; who based the show around the experiences of the Reverend Joy Carroll, one of England’s first female priests. Set in a small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, this show is a combination of three of the most popular TV episodes, ‘The Arrival’, ‘Love and Marriage’ and ‘The Easter Bunny’. The story begins after the old vicar has died suddenly, and we find David Horton Chairman of the parish council and a welcoming committee gathered in the Village Hall, awaiting the arrival of the new vicar. There is a knock at the door, a stranger enters, who turns out to be the new vicar and to David’s horror the vicar is a female. 

Directed by Jane Harrison with Producer Jacqui Brian this was a very entertaining laugh out loud production from St Paul’s Players. All TV shows create characters that have a propensity to become very well known by the public, and this show is no exception, as it includes several individual wellknown very eccentric characters that have been embraced and loved by popular culture. The character of the new vicar, Geraldine Granger, is not easy to accomplish, due to the talent and big personality of the original Geraldine namely Dawn French, but here Laura Roberts, gave a strong performance with her own very likeable more laid-back version of this iconic character, who was still a chocoholic and a down to earth modern vicar, she also managed to tell jokes brilliantly. Keith Brian was excellent in the role of the pompous privileged Parish Council Chairman David Horton and domineering father of bemused Hugo Horton played very well by Keiron Garlick, who is unable to admit his love for the dim and ditsy but lovable Verger Alice Tinker, played superbly by Leanne Romney, who must have worked hard to get the character right. A particularly enjoyable part of the show was the “I can’t believe it’s not butter” conversation with Geraldine which is a well-known and very funny extract from the TV programme. The indecisive and slightly confused Jim Trot was captured very well by Andrew Turton who was spot on with his no, no, no, yes timing, and Paul Roberts brought to life the part of local bachelor farmer Owen Newitt, who got on better with his animals than people. Church organist,and unique culinary expert, Letitia Cropley was played by Siobhan Edge, who produced as usual a very enjoyable comedy performance and Vince Taylor managed to capture very well the voice and character of the pedantic parish council secretary Frank Pickle. I must say that I felt that as the evening progressed all the characterisations got better and better, and the cast stayed in character all the way through the performance.  There were also some nice supportive cameo performances which included four young actors in a nice comedy interlude as school children visiting Geraldine, they were Harry Cohen,Joe Harrison, Yzzy Heyes and Georgia Hilton with Emily Baren as the women in the church. Generally, accents were good and diction along with projection was more than satisfactory. However, I did feel the pace of the show was a little slow at the start of the performance which did effect the comic timing at the beginning, but happily it picked up quickly as the play progressed. 

Scenery, as always from this company was top quality and was built by Sam Heyes and the stage crew. The stage was divided into two sets with one-half as‘the vicarage’ and the other was ‘the village hall’. The excellent church set used for Alice’s and Hugo’s very entertaining wedding scene, was on the floor in front of the stage and the church vestry was on the stage to the side of the proscenium arch. With authentic props, and good sound and lighting the experience was all very realistic and along with costumes that ranged from ministerial garb, to Alice’s wacky wedding dress, added to the success of the production 

When we go to see a play based on a well-known TV series, we expect to see and probably unintentionally compare the play and cast with the series and characters that we associate with the show, but I must say that this production must have satisfied the audience as they all appeared to be having a good time,really enjoying the show with lots of fun and laughs.

Congratulations to all involved in bringing this production to the stage and thank you very much for inviting us we had a great evening.

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