The Vicar of Dibley

St John’s Players chose, for their latest venture, a stage version of the well-loved TV series, The Vicar of Dibley, scripted by the original writers Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. The TV scripts are freely available and St John’s Players did as many groups do, simply adapted the television scripts. Groups are free to link them and adjust them to suit what is wanted.  Richard Curtis donates all proceeds to Comic Relief. An arrangement in which everyone benefits, the players for the wonderfully humorous lines, the audience for an entertaining evening whilst making a contribution to a very worthwhile cause.  

Director Ian Toombs successfully directed the production, his first obstacle being to decide which episodes to include. In the event we had Songs of Praise, Radio Dibley and Celebrity Vicar which concludes with ‘The Mirror Dance’.  Each scene ran between 40 and 45 minutes which, adding in the late start and an almost 30 minute interval, did make for a very long evening.

Another challenge came with using a split set on a small stage.  This was achieved by using two-thirds of the stage as the village hall for the parish meetings with the remaining third as the vicarage.  A sensible split as the majority of the cast appeared in the village hall but it did leave Geraldine’s sitting room pretty cramped. Having said that the available space was, in the main, used well.  Lighting (Graham Royston) was well up to SJP’s high standard.  Sound (Edmund King) was well chosen and set at a good level.  Costumes were well suited to each character and props, apart from the lectern, which was a bit of an eyesore, were good particularly in the Radio Dibley scene and the cleverly named gravestones in the churchyard front of stage.  

As with any of the much loved television sitcoms that have transferred to the stage, “The Vicar of Dibley” is won or lost in the casting and the actors’ ability to capture the essence of the characters, and on this score I am pleased to say that, in the main, Ian Toombs’ cast achieved this. The whole ensemble, although not clones of the original cast, managed to capture the speech delivery and mannerisms of the characters well. 

Leading from the front Jody Deacon made an excellent Geraldine ably supported by Frances Rayner as the dippy Alice Tinker.  Kieron Toner maintained the supercilious demeanour of David Horton well and David Weir was nicely hesitant as Hugo. Great depictions from Dean Ward as Frank and Moira Stephenson as Letitia as well as David Cooper as Owen and Colin Horne as Jim - who almost brought the house down with his virtually Full Monty at the Gala Night.  The strength of the cast continued with great support from Graeme Churchman as Tristan, Susy Worzencraft as Ruth and making her SJP debut Anna Disley-Stevens as both Cecelia and Darcy.

In conclusion, an entertaining evening, a good reminder of the much loved TV Series which was aptly enhanced by the poignant front of house photographic display. Well done to all concerned and thank you for the invitation to join you.

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