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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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Owen, Geraldine, Hugo, David, Frank, Letitia and Jim - the Dibley Parish Council. Pictures: Roy Palmer. The Vicar of Dibley
Hall Green Little Theatre
***** IT’S
nine years since Geraldine Grainger last graced our screens as the vicar
of Dibley, give or take a couple of short charity specials since, but in
this splendid staging at Hall Green it is as if she has never been away. I must admit I am not a fan of stage versions of
sitcoms. For a start, audience expectations are sky high and everyone
already has an all too accurate picture of what each character looks and
sounds like. So, unless the original cast is employed, too
often stage versions of sitcoms end up as a sort of theatrical karaoke
but here the cast have managed the remarkable feat of making familiar
and much loved characters not only remain familiar but have added an
extra facet by putting their own stamp upon them. You quickly forget that Ros Davies, for example, is not Dawn French; she might look like her and even sound like her but she becomes her own Geraldine in a very funny and polished performance. Similarly James Weetman is the colon challenged
Owen Newitt, the farmer with some unsavoury and, we suspect, unnatural
habits, with some lovely timing and deadpan delivery of some outlandish
asides. His lustful attack on Geraldine is a comic gem,
as is his return of her filling – revulsion and laughs all at the same
time. He plays the character in the same way as the
late Roger Lloyd-Pack, not trying to do an impression of him playing
Owen. The difference is subtle but important, playing a character in a
certai Each member of the cast manages that distinction
so we warm to their characters as they create them,such as in the way
Paul Holtom becomes no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes Jim
Trott, capturing the character beautifully.
Lin Neale provides the catering as Mrs Letitia
Cropley, with food combinations that make Heston Blumenthal look
positively boring – who could resist ham and cheese sandwiches with the
added ingredient of lemon curd or plain pancakes with just a hint of
liver. While Daniel Robert Beaton is Frank Pickle, as
boring and pedantic as ever, taking copious minutes including minuting
the fact he is taking minutes. And leading the parish council as its chair is
David Horton, pompous, bullying, chauvinistic and played with suitable
lack of humour and tact by Jon Richardson. Which brings us to our
lovebirds whose combined IQs would struggle to reach three figures –
indeed double figures would be a close run thing. Hugo, played
beautifully by Matt Ludlam, is probably worth a grant of some sort for
turning dim into an art form. He’s a gentle soul who lopes through life
like a lovable puppy. We discover also that he has eclectic tastes in
his sexual fantasies, which cost him a few bob with some lovely gentle
comedy in Lent, ranging through Kylie Minogue to Edwina Currie, Anne
Robinson and Anne Widdecombe? . . .
and of course Alice. The boy really does need a love interest and he
is made for Alice, the verger, who is one of nature’s less gifted
intellectuals – if she took a lunch hour she would probably need
retraining when she came back. Rachael Louise Pickard has often threate Alice and Hugo are a match made in heaven and
their first kiss is something to behold . . . and behold . . . and
behold . . . I suspect without it the whole thing could have been
reduced to one act and we could have been home before it went dark. How
did they manage to breathe I wonder?
Writers Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter have avoided
the trap of just a rehash of TV episodes and have written a play based
on the original scripts by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer,
opening with Geraldine arriving as the new vicar, a woman no less, “a
babe with a bob cut and a magnificent bosom” much to David’s dismay and
annoyance and all leading up to the wedding of Hugo and Alice. And in between are plenty of laughs from this
fine cast who display immaculate comic timing. Julia Roden has designed a clever set which
creates three stages in one with the parish hall meeting room,
Geraldine’s vicarage sitting room and the church office where Geraldine
manfully tries to tell jokes to the oh so dim Alice, all separated by
Paul Hartop’s lighting. Director Jean Wilde has found a nice gentle pace
and, more important, has managed to create a production with all the
characters we know yet has given them a life of their own so that we
don’t constantly compare them to their TV personas. Whether you have seen
The Vicar of Dibley
on TV or not, matters not a jot. This is a very funny play, with strong
characters, which stands on its own two feet, or cow pat splattered
wellies in Owen’s case. A wonderfully entertaining evening among old
friends. To 10-09-16. Roger Clarke 02-09-16 Despite running from 15 December 1994 to 1 January 2007, there were only 20 episodes of The Vicar of Dibley produced, including Christmas and New Year specials with a further six short charity shows. |
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way rather than playing Lloyd-Pack playing the character.
ned
in past productions with some impressive performances, but this time she
has really nailed it with her finest performance to date, she is just
magic as the scatterbrain Alice, pretty, funny, excitable and at the
same time oh so vulnerable. You just want to put your arms around her
and protect her from the real world. A superb piece of comic acting.