The Vicar of Dibley

It is always a great pleasure for me to go and review a production by FADS and lovely this time to see them tackling a comedy play new to me. The Vicar of Dibley is a stage play written by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter and was adapted from the original TV series by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. The story is set in the fictional Oxfordshire village of Dibley which has been assigned a female vicar following the changes in the Church of England.

This play was expertly directed and the casting well chosen. Roy coached the actors with considerable skill enabling them all, without exception, to give very accurate portrayals of their TV counterparts. No mean feat considering how iconic the characters all are!

Karen Franklin gave a wonderful performance in the role of Geraldine Granger. With great attention to detail and excellent comic timing she was outstanding.  This was a very demanding role bearing in mind the fact that she was hardly ever off the stage and had a great number of costume changes.

Clive Greig gave a very convincing portrayal of David Horton interacting well with all the other performers. Lyndsey Kite was brilliant in the role of the Alice Tinker the dippy housekeeper and Dave Holden gave a lovely performance as the hapless, love-struck Hugo Horton. His scenes with Alice Tinker were some of the funniest I have seen. John Croot gave a hysterical appearance as Owen Newitt, especially in his scenes with the vicar. Alex Medway as Jim Trott gave another outstanding performance and Roger Lee, Susan U’Ren and Elizabeth Toon completed this excellent cast.

The sets, designed by Alan Fryer and the director were ideal and full marks to all the stage crew, with more than twenty scene they did an excellent job. The changes were really slick but could possibly have been improved upon if the musical interludes could have been cut between a few of the scenes. The props were well thought out as were the costumes and makeup. The lighting and sound were also well up to standard.  Congratulations to you all on a great evening.

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