* A scene from The Vicar of Dibley by Llangollen Twenty Club.
* The vicar meets Elvis in the church hall.
... then Mary and Joseph.
* An angelic nativity scene.
llanblogger preview
Llangollen Twenty Club has made a divinely good job of bringing the
Vicar of Dibley, one of the small screen’s greatest comedy hits, to the live
stage.
From tomorrow (Wednesday) until Saturday at the Town Hall the talented
drama group will be performing two back-to-back episodes of the iconic show
which centres on how the Rev Geraldine Granger copes with life in a small rural
parish and the crazy antics of a bunch of eccentric villagers written into sitcom
legend back in the 90s by Richard Curtis.
The original cast, all with their own highly identifiable quirks, are a
tough act to follow but the Twenty bunch handles it in style.
Club regular Helen Belton takes on the ecclesiastical role and has even
had her hair styled in the manner of Dawn French, who memorably played the
vicar on TV, to ensure a high level of authenticity. And she also effortlessly manages
to wring out just as many laughs from the action as her famous counterpart.
The piece includes the episodes Dibley
on Air, in which the gang try out their own local radio station with predictably
hilarious results, and the Second Coming,
in which their nativity play with a difference goes haywire.
Handling the pivotal character of the sex-starved Jim Trott – famous catchphrase “no no no no” – with total competence is Kevin Williams, while Matt
Oswald-Haggett is equally adept at recreating Owen Newitt, the blunt-mannered local
farmer.
Excellent as usual in his role as pedantic yet surprisingly interesting parish
council clerk Frank Pickle is Twenty regular Arwel Jarvis and Heather Wolfson does
a neat line in bringing to life Mrs Cropley, whose repulsive culinary creations
nobody would want to touch.
An impressive dopey double-act has been put together by Bev Maier as church
verger Alice Horton – Tinker as was – and Dan Pedley as her equally hopeless
husband Hugo.
Steve Hughes turns in an admirable portrayal of Hugo’s tetchy old dad, local
squire David Horton, who is the closest we ever get to a villain of the piece.
There are a couple of nifty cameos by John Clifford as the vet and Jayne
Dickson who shows up right at the end playing an accordion, the reason for
which cannot be disclosed without spoiling things.
Director Chrissie Ashworth, the whole cast and a very competent backstage team have done a heavenly job with A Vicar of
Dibley Christmas.
Stage play is by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter adapted from the original
TV series by Richard Curtiss and Paul Mayhew-Archer with kind permission of
Tiger Aspect Productions.
The show will be staged at Llangollen Town Hall from Wednesday November
16th to Saturday November 19 at 7.30pm with a matinee on the Saturday at 2.30
pm.
* Tickets - £12 and £10 concessions - are available online at: ticketsource.co.uk/llangollentwentyclub or
from Courtyard Books, Llangollen Oggie Shop or Jenni in Market Street. Tickets
also available from cast and crew members, and at the door, subject to
availability.
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