Vicar of Dibley 2

“The Vicar of Dibley 2”, was a superb choice of production for Sutton’s Green Hut Theatre Company to celebrate their 90th Anniversary year.  This was a great follow up to “The Vicar of Dibley” when they performed it in 2016.  Once again, we members of the audience were all supplied with Orders of Service (programmes) and hymn sheets (to sing at the wedding) on arrival at “church”, and we were invited to sing along with any of the hymns as they were played throughout scene changes.  This really did take me back to my school days – I found myself humming along to most of the music, which we excellently chosen to compliment the production.

The Vicar, Geraldine Grainger, was brilliantly played by Alison Waters, as she reprised the role she portrayed in their 2016 production.  The vicar is the lynch-pin of the whole piece and this is such a huge demanding role.  I was exhausted thinking about the number of quick costume changes she had – none of which phased her.  Well done Alison – huge congratulations on playing such a huge part once again.  Dare I say I look forward to “Vicar of Dibley 3”!!!

James Jennings played the love-struck Hugo Horton, alongside Alice Tinker being brilliantly played by Cassie Fonth.  Act 1 focussed heavily on the forthcoming arrival of Alice & Hugo’s baby – and the hilarious preparations (including auditions) for the nativity – which heralded the birth of their new born baby girl, giving this well known story a hilarious twist to end Act 1.

Act 2 centred around the preparations for Geraldine’s forthcoming wedding to Harry, ably played by Bryan Blackie.  Not only did he have the challenge of mastering this role as Geraldine’s “love” interest, but he also stage managed the whole production - with over 40 scene changes throughout the piece I must congratulate Bryan, along with his stage and props team, who all did absolutely sterling work to change the set as quickly as they did every time.

David Knights once again took the role of the grumpy Council Chairman, David Horton, however we began to see his softer side in this production once we found out he was about to become a granddad!

Jim Trott, (he of no,no,no,yes fame!) was played by Philip Smith.  The part of Frank Pickle, the pedantic Council Clerk was convincingly played by Philip Boocock.  Kevin Stevenson played the part of Owen Newitt.  All of them had great comic timing and portrayed their characters perfectly.

In the interval we were treated to sandwiches for supper –ham, egg and cheese along with homemade cakes – which gave it a real “church fete” type feel to the whole evening.

Many congratulations to Philip Smith as director, to the terrific cast and everyone involved in this excellent production.  Vicar of Dibley 2 certainly gets a ‘No, no, no...YES’ from me!

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