“The Vicar Of Dibley” by Encore Performing Arts
Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton

When the ancient vicar of Dibley dies suddenly, the parishioners are surprised to find that the Bishop has appointed a woman in his place.There is slight resistance to Geraldine but she wins everyone in Dibley over with her charm and sense of humour.

This production segues several sections of the BBC TV comedy series into nearly three hours of comedy gold on stage.

You know when you get that aching feeling in your cheeks and bits of your body start leaking liquid involuntarily, well that is what tonight was like for me.

I've always been a fan of this comedy series, because the actors and the script were of the utmost quality. Well that was the same here on the Duchess Theatre stage. The script is eternally funny and this group of actors were sensational. They each captured the foibles of every character, vocally and physically.

Keli Wain (Geraldine) is the perfect choice for the Dawn French character as she juggles the comedy with the more serious parts of the TV series. From the bob wig to the costumes for the vicar, this performance was heavenly.

Steve Dunning (David Horton) captures the voice of the TV character so accurately that, if you close your eyes, it's like listening to the TV show itself.

Terry Stevenson (Frank Pickle) captures the calm Pickle just right; you get the feeling that there is a comedy outburst just about to bubble over, and then subsides, and it's that anticipation that keeps this character vital to the storylines.

Christopher Mundy (Hugo Horton) works Hugo both vocally as well as physically, and having seen Chris in several productions, I know that he has a special talent for characters like this. Chris knows how to act with his face. That may seem an obvious thing to say for an actor, but it takes skill to be able to show an audience what a character is feeling and what he wants to express through his facial expressions, and Chris has that talent.His pace is perfect, an example of this is with the kissing scene with Alice. Hugo is very childlike, and I loved that this was brought out by his love for colouring books while at the meetings.

Milly Shawcross (Alice Tinker), according to the programme was "pretty damn nervous" before this show. I tell you what, Milly was so incredibly good playing Alice that nerves was not a thing that you could level to Milly. She has obviously observed the TV character very closely because every little nuance was captured. The "stupidity" aka naivety of Alice was portrayed to a "T", it was like having the wonderful Emma Chambers on stage, and I can't believe that this was her first stage role, and I also know that, by listening to the audience, she impressed a lot of people tonight.

Adam Guest (Jim Trott) is one of the busiest local actors I know, and playing Trott highlights his very obvious talents to get under the skin of a character,and also to sound like his TV character. There's a section concerning campanology and Adam absolutely nails this simple joke pun, and in some actors' may not bring out the full comedy potential, Adam had the audience in stitches with the presentation.

Angela Walters (Letitia Cropley), now it's a long time since I last saw Angela in such a lead role, too long in fact, so it's great to see her talents used in such a lovely comedy role. Just don't partake of her food fare!

Duncan Leech (Owen Newitt) again plays a blinder as the original sexist pig, complete with the habits and cleanliness of a pig.The scene where he gets a kiss from Geraldine is classic and I'm sure that i heard someone behind me dry retching. A wonderfully comic role that is so laid back, he's almost horizontal. I had just one query all the way through, is did Duncan grow that beard for the role, or is it just another excellent prop?

Fleshing out the main cast are Rebecca Statham, Siobhan Parker, Katie Bird and Simon Graves in various characters, Along with this quartet the production gave the children involved in Encore a nice class of cameos, Lucy Brealey, Ashleigh Buckley, Will Buckley, Luke Cicrech, Tess Clover, Nathan Hayward, Quillen Parker, Findley Parker, Jake Service and Jess Winfield.

Directed by Adam Guest, who also did the wonderful set design, with Richard Warriner, as well as the sound design. I loved the massive Bible which opened out to backdrop the various scenes in the play.

I also loved how, if you looked carefully at the notice board on the wall of the Village Hall, it advertised the next few productions from Encore as well as BMTG's "The Producers", which also features Adam in a main role.

Comedy can be as intricate or as simple as you like and one thing that continually had me chuckling throughout is the "phone" work. The "voice" on the other end of the phone just had my chuckle muscles going throughout. Simple comedy worked well to get the maximum comedy effect.

Loved the lighting design (Richard Warriner), very effective during the thunderstorm at the start, and well operated by Andrew Bould.

The timing of the lighting was spot on, as was the sound, operated by Ben Bradley.

Have I mentioned the costumes? No? Well let me tell you, they were wonderful, every costume befitting of the characters they adorned. A job done wonderfully by Amanda Warriner.

Comedy is not easy to perfect, but lately I've seen many comedy shows by local theatre groups that have got it just right. Encore's production, like every comedy they have presented is of the highest quality and on a par with any professional comedy production I've ever seen. And that is because of the talent in the cast and crew and the many hours of hard work that is invested in their shows. A second sell out evening also prove that Encore have a massive following in local theatre who are always guaranteed to get their monies worth, which keeps them religiously coming back

“The Vicar Of Dibley” is at the Duchess Theatre, Long Eaton until Saturday 5 October, so whatever you need to do to get a ticket for this heavenly show, go do it. Praying may also help!