The Vicar of Dibley

It is always so lovely to be invited to see Maldon Drama Groups productions. I always comment on just how wonderful their front of house team led by Linda Adair is.  Their welcome to all the audience is superb; with their bright yellow sashes, smiles and helpfulness, they really do make it a pleasure to visit. No wonder they have audiences coming time and again to see them. Their attention to detail is second to none.  The drinks before and after the interval were very well received and we would also like to thank Rita East for her friendly chat during the interval.

This production proves that putting on a ‘bums on seats’ show really works as they had full houses every night; a feat that most societies would like to emulate.

When the tabs opened, we were greeted with an open set, split between the Parish Hall, a blank area which became the Horton’s house and also the church and stage left, on the thrust, Geraldine’s cottage.

Using three scripts from the television series The Vicar of Dibley, they opened with the first one in the series, The Arrival, with the new vicar turning out to be a woman, much to the distress of the parish council chairman, David Horton; who was ably portrayed by Simon Ash. However I must admit that I would have liked to have seen Simon being a little less likeable and more overbearing, nonetheless he was eloquent and distinguished on stage.

We were introduced to all the characters from the TV series that we all grew to love during the Nineties.  Here was Owen Newitt, the farmer with a definite way of straight talking, to the extent of giving us all too much information about his nether regions. Chris Pond played Owen and definitely made the most of his role, he was wonderfully revolting, much to the delight of the audience.

Karen Smith was Letitia Cropley with her knitting and incredible recipes for Marmite cakes and lemon curd with ham and cheese sandwiches. I did admire the way she kept knitting throughout the whole show. I wonder just how long that scarf is going to be by the end of the week!

Hugo Horton (Dan Roberts), the hapless love-struck son of David, was a super portrayal. With his wonderful collection of ties, his clear diction and huge enthusiasm, you could see just why Alice fell in love with him.

Heather Lucas gave a perfect portrayal of the simple Alice, the verger, with her ditsy loveable personality and was so close to the television actress Emma Chambers portrayal that it was hard to believe we were not seeing the professional actress on stage. She kept her West Country accent throughout. Very well done Heather!

Who can ever forget the wonderful character of Jim Trott (David Ford) with his No, no, no, no – yes!  This was another effective characterisation which delighted the audience and was totally believable.

Frank Pickle (Scott Peters) had the hard job of trying to be as boring as possible compared with all the other larger than life characters. With his silver grey wig and beaming smile he held his own ably on stage and gave a nicely judged performance.

Helen Rasmussen played the vicar, Geraldine Granger and it is always so difficult to act a character that is so well known. To be compared to Dawn French is a hard act to follow but Helen made the role her own and gave a very professional, confident portrayal of the much loved character.

The smaller but not any less important cameo roles were all excellently done. Martin Adams as Tinky Winky gave the audience something to smile at every time he came on with his placards, to let us know the days or weeks passing. Neil Davies was the elderly Reverend Pottle who tottered and died well on the set at the beginning of the first scene. Connor Smith as the handsome Daniel Frobisher in the second episode ‘The Window and the Weather’ gave a polished performance and the children Carole Ash and Clare Taylor were very funny indeed.

The costumes were excellent for this show, so well done to all the cast and crew for getting them accurate. I especially loved Geraldine’s jumper and Alice’s wedding dress was hilarious. Director Ian McDonald has obviously enjoyed producing this show and I am sure we will see him direct again soon.

I’m afraid to say that sound balances were again a problem with either too loud when near the down stage, floor microphones or too little when actors spoke upstage. Also some feedback occurred during the show.  Lighting too was a little disappointing this time around. I did love the projection of the Horton’s window and the Stained Glass church window but there was shadow which I felt could have been taken out.

The crew did very well to change the set as quickly as possible and worked as hard as they could to try and quicken the pace of each change of scene.  Being crew for this show must be incredibly hard as each play consists of a great number of short scenes interspersed with blackouts which can slow the production down and not allow the action to flow well.

The audience on the night we visited all loved the show and even joined in on one of the hymns.  Listening to the remarks in the interval and at the end when people were leaving, everyone had had a great evening and totally enjoyed their night. The amount of hard work and commitment was obvious and we congratulate everyone who was involved in the making of this production.

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