The Vicar of Dibley

Bridgetown Repertory’s next production is the stage play of the ‘The Vicar of Dibley’.

Molly Flemming will be directing the play, her first role as director.

The stage show is a compilation of the Vicar of Dibley TV series, showing many and differing funny situations and scenes from the series that made the show so popular.

The cast is made up of nine adults who are all playing unique and memorable character roles which we have all come to know so well, and seven children who are playing the roles of Sunday school children.

The role of Hugo is played by Jack Mingay, and he is the ideal choice to play Hugo with his animated facial expressions and his marionette puppet-like body movements, he mimics his character to a tee.

The naïve, bubbly, vibrant and sometimes silly but always dipsy role of Alice Tinker, the church verger, is played by Elli Golding. A role that can be best explained with the use of adjectives.

This is Elli’s first role at the Bridgetown Theatre, and her first part in a play since leaving school. “Alice’s character in the show is a lot of fun to play, it is a challenge being Alice, she has such a wonderfully unique and fun personality which I portray, a personality that is so unlike my own, it’s a role I’ve delved into and a role I’m really enjoying playing,” Elli explained.

Alice is the vicar’s best, and most loyal, friend. Having lived a very sheltered existence, Alice often drives the vicar to distraction with her useless advice, empty-headed comments and general misunderstanding of the world outside the village and she rarely gets Geraldine’s end jokes.

Alice and Hugo are often shown to be fond of each other and eventually marry after the Vicar plays Cupid. Alice’s wedding dress is a ‘must see’.

Adrian Elder is welcomed back to the stage after more than thirty years of absence. He is to play the role of Reverend Pottie, this has come about after a passing conversation with Molly where Adrian was not careful enough for what he wished for, when he mentioned “if there was a role for the Reverend Pottie, the man in the play who dies, I’m it.”

The role of Jim Trott is being played by Bevan Mills, after an absence of more than twenty-five years from the theatre, this role was decided for him by his wife Pip. “It’s a perfect fit, because you are always saying no, no, no, no to everything.”

The stage play of The Vicar of Dibley is heart-warming and very funny, and has characters that are unique and daring. All the players chosen for the Bridgetown production are all a good fit with the characters as seen in the TV series.

Spoil yourself and come to the theatre and enjoy the show that will take you on an hilarious and familiar romp through a well written comedy which has a lot of drama unfolding.

The Vicar of Dibley will be presented through May. The performance dates are Thursday May 1st, Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd with a matinee on Sunday 4th. Then the following week, Thursday May 8, Friday 9, Saturday 10th and a matinee on Sunday 11th.

Molly concludes with “The stage play has clever dialogue, it showcases many unique, diverse and strange range of characters that all go to make up a very funny show that should not be missed.”