The Vicar of Dibley. By Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter. Adapted from the TV series by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. Directed by Jon Elphick. Tempo Theatre. Theatre@bcs, Swanson Street, Belconnen. Until November 5. Bookings 6275 2700 or canberraticketing.com.au.
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Tempo Theatre make an excursion into the daffy world of The Vicar of Dibley in this stage adaptation and it's rather fun. It is especially fortunate in its casting of Karyn Tisdell in the Dawn French role of vicar Geraldine Granger but there's more to Dibley than its spiritual leader and the supporting cast forms the expected group of village eccentrics with some élan.
If you know the series, you'll know all of them on the St Barnabas Parish Council. There's bossy chairman David Horton (Kim Wilson) and his rather wimpy son Hugo (Sam Kentish). The minutes are taken by the pedantic Frank Pickle (Tony Cheshire) and the eccentric food is supplied by Mrs Letitia Cropley (Marian Fitzgerald). Jim Trott (Jon Elphick) says "no" when he might mean "yes" and Owen Newitt (Jason Morton) is an agriculturalist straight out of Cold Comfort Farm. The verger is the utterly off-the-wall Alice Tinker (Tessa Franceschini) who never quite understands vicar Geraldine's jokes.
What plot there is concerns Geraldine's slightly rocky arrival and growing acceptance, the progress of Hugo and Alice's relationship, and endless parish council meetings. FitzGerald's vacantly smiling Mrs Cropley is prone to chatting to the audience and in the second half treats them to a goodly slice of her organ repertoire (not all of which are hymns), having failed to get far with her offers of food.
The Belconnen Community Theatre has always been a bit of a rough space and, intentionally or not, an abrupt approach to lights and sound is about what you might expect from a theatre technician trained in Dibley's village hall.
The performances are suitably broad and endearing. Franceschini and Kentish make a well mismatched courting couple and Franceschini's Alice can be very funny indeed. Cheshire's Frank is wonderfully pedantic in his obsession with taking correct minutes and director Elphick as Jim does a great job of the rehearsal of the best man's speech for the wedding of Alice and Hugo.
Even Wilson's dreadful snob of a David finally thaws a little and Morton's Owen courts Geraldine with a relentlessly straightforward logic that she finds understandably resistible.
The whole thing is held together by Tisdell's warm performance as Geraldine where Dawn French is evoked but not mimicked.
This really is one for those who have great affection for the series, but the non-fans might find themselves charmed too.
