The Vicar of Dibley

I was curious to see how SPADS would meet the challenge of performing on a stage that they had not encountered before, but what an honour to be invited by the local council to showcase the society at the newly refurbished Broadway Theatre.

The stage set was simple consisting of a table and chairs for committee meetings and a sofa and a door representing the vicarage.

The setting was used to great effect with the action continuous throughout.

Most will remember the opening theme tune to the television series and the music throughout the production was well used to link the scenes together and reminiscent of the top pop groups of the day.

The whole cast were totally believable. Indeed, close your eyes and you could have been taken back to the 1990’s sitting at home watching the original broadcasts. It is difficult to single out any of the key actors. The mannerisms of all were totally as expected especially Emma Northcott (Geraldine Granger), Nigel Downes (Jim Trott), Kanyin Jalaosho (Owen Newitt) and Brian Seal (Frank Pickle). 

Many of the scenes were extremely funny and the cast most certainly made the most of the humour. The scene when Alice (Katt Whitfield) was describing ‘I can’t believe it’s not butter’, Frank checking whether he needed to record people’s apologies in the minutes, Jim with his ‘No, No, No, Yes’, Geraldine’s love of chocolate and Owens continual references to his ablutions especially when he passed Geraldine’s tooth filling were all extremely well done.

In addition, we had Hugo Horton (Josh Clarke) portraying a range of ties and great scenes with Alice, David Horton (Trevor Burton) suitably snobby and Letitia Cropley (Theresa Millar) with her culinary delights all of whom brought the whole experience of sampling life in Dibley closer to home.  

The children in the short scene with Geraldine and Alice were well disciplined and spoke audibly and clearly. Well done to you all.

The production was a great use of a local resource and truly brought live entertainment to the community. I, like the rest of the audience was treated to a super evening of entertainment and in the end I had to put my note pad down, stop writing and just sit back, laugh and enjoy the whole experience.

Thank you once again for inviting me to your excellent production

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