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Synopsis

Farcical goings-on at Merton-cum-Middlewick vicarage. What happens when a vicar goes away, leaving his ex-actress wife to entertain a former colleague who has to dress up in her husband's clothes, and they're spotted by a nosy parishioner who reads too much into what she sees? And when the wife's uncle, a bishop, mistakes the colleague for her husband, and an escaped prisoner breaks into the house and also dresses up as a reverend, will the real vicar be able to disentagle fact from farce on his return?

Our Review:

Paul Lucas-Scott - 23 August 2011

The main difference between a farce and a riotous comedy seems to come down to one thing - the number of doors. In the latest incarnation of Philip King’s timeless piece, the set is not large - though it still manages to feature four of them - and they all are used with a frequency which reinforces the impression that this is farce at its very best.

Set in the “Dibleyesque” village of Merton-Cum-Middlewick, the opening action harks back to a time in Middle England and the mid-1940s when the most important things in village life were judgemental neighbours and the local gossip. Penelope Toop [Siobhan O’Kelly] is the free-spirited vicar’s wife but she will always be an ex-actress in the eyes of “spinster-of-the-parish” Miss Skillon, who is played with almost matronly aplomb by Lucy Speed.

Miss Skillon is disgusted at the thought of such an unsuitable vicar’s wife and, after seeing her wearing trou...

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