The Vicar of Dibley (The Second Coming)

I received a warm welcome at the Festival Drayton Centre to see The Vicar of Dibley (The Second Coming).  If you’ve watched the much-loved TV show, you will have happy memories of the iconic scenes and performances over the years. The question of the evening was how would members of Market Drayton Operatic and Dramatic Society portray the characters we have all come to know so well.

As soon as the show started I knew I was in safe hands as the Choir (MDAODS Little Voices) performed perfectly a harmonised version of  ‘The Lord is My Shepherd’.  The stage was cleverly split into two, with half being Rev. Geraldine Granger’s sitting room and the other half, the Parish Hall (complete with notice boards and piles of spare chairs), whilst a small stage extension provided extra staging for the Radio broadcasts. The set was very effective, extremely colourful and had just the right amount of detail to keep my interest, well done to the Tuesday Night Gang for pulling it all together. The final Christmas nativity took place in front of black curtains and this worked well to represent the night of the Nativity.

The scenes in this production are short and easily recognisable from the TV show however I did feel that the many scene changes did slow down the pace of this show when being performed on stage. Stuart Faul on sound however did provide the audience with lots of musical interludes appropriate to the unfolding story to cover the scene and costume changes. Peter Morris & Will Shelly did well on providing just the right of ambient lighting to enable actors to leave the stage and for the props team of Lisa Savill and Yvonne Guntripp to reset the many properties. Sound provided was excellent and was executed well especially during the technical aspects of the Radio show. I did however struggle occasionally to hear all of the dialogue being performed on stage as performers turned up stage.

The plot of this show involved Alice Horton (nee Tinker) discovering she is pregnant and trying to adjust to being part of the Horton family, The Dibley Radio show, and the production of the Dibley Nativity.

It was evident that Directors Pat Stalker and Marleen Marsden had spent time on establishing the great characterisations portrayed by this talented cast and it was well worth it. There was some stand out moments where we found ourselves belly-laughing at the delivery of the dialogue or the outrageous situations.  Why was Owens announcement of being delayed to a meeting due to an exploding sheep so funny!

Geraldine Granger was played by Ali Parrington and was a good choice for the amiable vicar. By the end of the play, we felt her pain as she contended with her rather unorthodox Nativity cast. The vision of her adorned with light up halo shouting in frustration is particularly memorable.

Alice Tinker was played by Louise Pounds, her voice and mannerisms were spot on for the character. Her eye contact, her speech and her timing all excellent. The attention to detail for characters was continued; Matt Baker as Hugo Horton was very accurate. His body posture and head movements were excellent and the juxtaposition of his relationship with Alice and his domineering father was really noticeable.

Graham Edwards played David Horton. Graham held the part well, a supercilious councillor, landowner and chair of the Parish Council. David Horton was put in his place when, during the Radio Dibley quiz, Alice actually beat him - with carefully engineered questions written by Geraldine.

Jon Edwards played Owen Newitt brilliantly. His voice, mannerisms and intonation laid way to a great character. His comic timing is impeccable and led to some very funny moments. Owen Newitt dressed as Elvis, in a costume that did not leave much to the imagination, was also hilarious.

Equally impressive was Graham Richardson as Jim Trott. I really enjoyed his frequent costume changes and I particularly appreciated his Billie Jean King Tennis outfit. Graham’s voice and posture was another excellent example of accurate characterisation. Jim’s well known manner of saying ‘No, no, no………..’ before every speech was particularly funny and well observed. The comic timing of announcing that he was glued to a television set was quite something else.

We didn’t hear much of Alison Woods as Letitia Cropley, but she did a good job, there were some references to her unusual cooking and there was great attention to detail with a variety of different coloured knitting that adorned different scenes.

Colin Whitfield gave a great performance as the likeable and avuncular Frank Pickle, a character who created some hilarity with his taking down of the Parish council minutes. One of the highlights of the play was when, during his slot in the Dibley radio show, Frank decided to ‘come out’. He arrived at the next council meeting in a fabulous pink blazer but no one had listened to the broadcast and just ignored his new liberated self. Frank’s impression of Stephen Hawking for his audition for the ‘wise man’ was another highlight for me.  

I had a very enjoyable evening; a really good laugh and I enjoyed the skill of the cast and crew. Thank you for inviting me, I look forward to future productions.

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