The Vicar of Dibley

The play is written by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter and features plots and scenes from the original TV series by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer with kind permission from Tiger Aspect Productions. It is set in the sleepy village of Dibley where the elderly local vicar has recently died and the Parish Council members are waiting to greet his replacement - what they are not expecting is that the new vicar is a woman!

The small stage was divided into two halves one side being the Parish Hall and the other the Vicar’s sitting room both being appropriately furnished with the addition of excellent props and each side was ‘lit’ according to the scene location. There are so many scenes in the play, some being very short, and at times cast members had to move very quickly from one setting to the other and so this arrangement certainly enabled the flow to proceed without too much interruption. When choosing to perform a play that is based on an extremely popular TV sitcom the Director is under extreme pressure to try to replicate the original characters as near as possible and to be fair, I suspect, that is what the majority of the audience expect to see. Well, they certainly were not disappointed on that front.

The role of the Vicar was originally written for Dawn French and so to fill those shoes as it were would be no mean feat but, Pauline Hindle was definitely up to the task. Not only was she a real ‘look-a-like’ for Dawn but she characterised the enthusiasm and the warmth perfectly and her mannerisms, comedic timing and wonderful facial expressions were just sublime - a truly outstanding performance. The Verger, Alice Tinker, was delightfully played by Georgia Archer and with a great West Country accent she delivered the naivety, the childlike excitability of Alice wonderfully and the scene where she was trying to sort out the pros and cons of ‘I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter’ was just exquisite. Neil Yewman was totally convincing as the self-opinionated, pompous and supercilious Chairman of the Parish Council, David Horton and Ryan Mitchell ideally epitomised the sweet natured, but somewhat dim-wittedness of his son Hugo with a fine portrayal. He is secretly madly in love with Alice but following an intervention from the Vicar the long awaited declaration of love resulted in a kiss, that believe or not, lasted right through the Interval! David Thorpe as Frank Pickle, by the very nature of his name it would seem, was always in a ‘pickle’ when carrying out his job as Minute Secretary but he portrayed the boring and pedantic nature of the character impeccably. Sue Siddall was terrific as Letitia Cropley she brought out the humour in the role with great obliviousness. Simon Lewington gave a very accomplished performance as easygoing farmer Owen Newitt. He managed to both amuse and disgust with his outrageous behaviour and he too had quite a ‘snog’ with the Vicar, much to her dismay! What an absolutely brilliant portrayal came from Richard Leivers as dithering Jim Trott. His ‘No, No, Noes - Yes’ were so excellently delivered and his whole demeanour was top notch, he literally had the audience in fits of laughter and his description of his ‘Best Man speech’ was just hilarious. Three village children were charmingly played by Alfie Evans, Ava Brennan and Eddie Waller. The wedding of Alice and Hugo was set in front of the main curtains with the resplendently attired vicar being on the stage and Letitia, after delivering the flowers, sat at one side of the stage playing a keyboard. The ‘guests’ entered from the side and with Hugo stood with their backs to the audience, awaiting the bride. Owen, in charge of videoing proceedings, came from the back of the Hall and down the centre aisle capturing images as he went. Alice, accompanied by Frank, followed wearing a beautiful wedding dress with lights on her headdress and Frank had a large poster pinned on his back saying ‘I Am Not The Father’. In attendance were the aforementioned children magnificently dressed as Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men and Little Weed and there was an interruption from a lady declaring that the bridegroom was already married and when Hugo turned around - “Sorry, wrong wedding”! When the vicar said “You may kiss the bride” guess who rushed forward…..no, no, no - yes, Jim!! Owen must have got some wonderful shots for the video as he was virtually clambering all over the bride and groom as well as the guests. At the following reception Geraldine certainly put a damper on things by announcing that she would be leaving Dibley for a post in Liverpool however, all was not lost because the final scene was in the Vicar’s sitting room where a very happy and different David suddenly uttered one word - ‘Stay’. 

The many changes of costume by the cast definitely helped to show the passage of time (loved Letitia’s many hats) and the men certainly looked most elegant in their wedding suits. It was such a joy in these troubled times to actually laugh out loud and be entertained by such a wonderful production delivered by an outstanding cast. Many congratulations to them, to the Director, Karl Brennan and to all the backstage and Front of House Staff. Many thanks for the lovely Interval refreshments which were served to the whole audience and also my thanks to Dawn, Chair of the Society, for your very warm welcome.

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