Ludwig Theatre Company Proudly Presents: THE VICAR OF DIBLEY! Live. In Tenbury. This Autumn. (At a very exciting venue to be announced soon!)

By kind permission of United Agents, Richard Curtis and Tiger Aspect Productions in support of Comic Relief.

A two act play with all your favourite characters from the hugely popular TV series. 

Relive the arrival of the new female Vicar, Geraldine Granger and meet again the many insane inhabitants of the quiet village of Dibley…

A stage play by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter adapted from the original TV series by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer.

About the show 

The Vicar of Dibley was created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, It aired from 1994 to 2007. It is set in a fictional small Oxfordshire village called Dibley, which is assigned a female vicar following the 1992 changes in the Church of England that permitted the ordination of women.

In ratings terms, the programme is among the most successful in the digital era, with the various Christmas and New Year specials in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 all entering the top 10 programmes of the year. The Vicar of Dibley received multiple British Comedy Awards, two International Emmys, and was a multiple British Academy Television Awards nominee. In 2004, it came third in Britain’s Best Sitcom.

The script was written by Ian Gower and Paul Carpenter adapted from the original TV series by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. It featured plot and scenes sourced primarily from the first two series of the show aired between 1994 and 1998. Series one consisted of 6 episodes and series two only 4 episodes. Some of the later episodes and specials were also referenced. It covered events from the arrival of the new vicar through to the wedding of Alice and Hugo.

Auditions & Familiarisation Session: 

Familiaristaion Session is opptional. This is a chance to meet Director, Jack Ludwig and read through the script. This will be held on Wednesday 31st August 2022 for a one off meeting at LTA Office in Hereford (refreshments will be provided)

Auditions will be on Friday 2nd September 2022 in Bromyard venue TBC from 7pm. If you are unable to attend and would like to audition during the day this can be arranged at our Hereford Office. 

Rehearsals:

Rehearsals for Vicar Of Dibley will be on Wednesday evenings from Wednesday 7th September 7pm - 10pm at Tenbury High Ormiston Academy (Main Hall).

Production Dates & Times:

Dress & Technical Rehearsals Tuesday 15th & Wednesday 16th November 2022 From 6pm

Show 1 - Thursday 17th at 7:00pm

Show 2 - Friday 18th at 7:00pm

Show 3 - Saturday 19th at 2:00pm

Show 4 - Saturday 19th at 7:00pm

Venue to be announced very soon! 

Production Information:

To help with covering production costs there is a production fee of £35. A script fee (non refundable) of £10 and £2 per week rehearsal contribution. Tea, Coffee and sweet treats are provided at rehearsals. Yum! 

Roles:

REVEREND GERALDINE GRANGER

Geraldine is the bouncy, bubbly, curvy female Vicar of Dibley. She has a keen sense of moral correctness and will stand up for injustice; she also has a deep love of the people of Dibley despite their many flaws! She has an even greater love of chocolate and icecream...especially when upset or angered and she would love to find a male partner.

DAVID HORTON

David is one of those people who enjoys being in charge and assumes he is: he might even be described as being a bit power-trippy. He's a pompous Cambridge educated, upper-class, millionaire and although divorced, an upholder of stern traditional family values especially his own. He longs for tradition, law and order and the status quo.

ALICE TINKER

Alice is a few sandwiches (and cakes, and pork pies, and sausage rolls...) short of a picnic. She has a heart of gold but doesn't understand many of the common issues of life, nor Geraldine's jokes. She's very sensitive and easily upset - but too stupid and vague to be easily offended! More amusing and key to the plot of the show is the way she's also easily confused, and has a vivid imagination surrounding what's normal (such as Teletubbie bridesmaids and pageboys).

HUGO HORTON

Poor Hugo is the veritable puppet of his controlling father. He was brought up only by David for the majority of his childhood, and it becomes quickly apparent that that upbringing was emotionally abusive. He aims to avoid conflict, and always aims to please, and does not know how to express his feelings towards Alice.

FRANK PICKLE

Frank is very "English" in appearance: highly eccentric in both manner and dress, and outstandingly well-spoken. However, whilst he speaks exceptionally well linguistically, most of the Dibley inhabitants wish he would speak a little - no - a lot less, and has been known to bore people to sleep when he speaks! As Clerk of the Parish Council, he's keen to take minutes as accurately as possible, but has a habit of dithering about the finer detail of things, such as whether to minute someone saying nothing, so the minutes end up taking twice as long to record as the meeting itself!

JIM TROTT

Jim has a very unfortunate stutter, insofar as he precedes almost every statement with "No, no, no, no, no...". Needless to say the other residents find this annoying, timeconsuming and confusing when trying to gain a straight answer from him! This aside, Jim spends a lot of time generally dithering anyway and so rarely manages to achieve much. Jim has a great interest in sex and can turn any conversation towards it.

OWEN NEWITT

Owen is the local farmer. He regularly suffers with gastric health complaints and describes these in disgustingly graphic detail. He's a bachelor with broad tastes... he often hints at both desiring after and having had previous relationships with animals, as well as women. Like many of the other male residents of the village, he lusts after Geraldine.

LETITIA CROPLEY

Letitia is a very caring lady who longs to provide nourishing refreshment and sustenance to her close friends and neighbours, and ensures the church is full of attractive flower arrangements during Sunday worship. The problem is her creativity could be described as rather eccentric: her mourning flower arrangement included pineapple! Her palette is a bit odd too, as she's created countless dishes which require, shall we say, an acquired taste? Parsnip brownies are at the more tame end of her repertoire! The villagers fear her cooking but eat it out of courtesy; unfortunately this only spurs her on to further “gourmet” creations!

WOMAN

The Woman has two lines at the end of the play and objects to Alice and Hugo getting married and then realises she is at the wrong wedding.

CHILDREN

We will need 5 children aged 7+ for this production.