An ambitious but underdeveloped production with a lot of heart.Rating
Ok
There is a lot of heart in this new one-person show about a woman “accidentally ordained” in a small village, and it is clear that an enormous amount of work has gone into its 70-minute runtime. Performer Mimi Nation-Dixon does a superb job of keeping the pace up, moving seamlessly between characters with well-executed costume changes and confident multi-roling. Her energy and commitment carry the piece admirably. The costume changes are slick, and the lighting transitions are well handled, helping to keep the pace consistent throughout.
That said, there is perhaps too much material packed into this short performance. We catch glimpses of a woman with a complicated inner life: a hinted eating disorder, a fractured relationship with her sister, and the shadow of past sexual trauma, but none of these threads are developed enough to give us a full sense of who she really is. The central storyline, a one-sided emotional affair with a parishioner (played somewhat awkwardly by an audience member), gives the piece its structure, but even that feels a little under-explored.
Tonally, the show sits somewhere between The Vicar of Dibley and a Richard Curtis romantic comedy, complete with a few too many cheeky jokes, including an extended gag involving a farmer and one of his animals that rather outstays its welcome. While the audience was clearly on board for much of the performance, there were moments when the laughter started to fade.
There are, however, some memorable supporting figures. The elderly lady in the supper club, though not physically present on stage, provides warmth and humour, and the farmer character is genuinely funny, if a little close to familiar territory from Dibley. Still, it feels like the play could benefit from greater focus: tightening the narrative, trimming the jokes, and honing in on one or two key aspects of the protagonist’s life.
For a show set in a parish, faith itself feels surprisingly absent. The story might work just as well if she were in a different profession entirely, and perhaps that is part of the problem. If the piece is developed further, it would be good to see religion, community, or belief more deeply woven into the character’s identity.
The musical transitions, set firmly in the early 2000s, add charm and a sense of period, but again, there is no strong thematic through-line connecting them. Overall, this is a promising and ambitious work with flashes of humour and heart. With a clearer focus and more developed emotional depth, it could become something really special.
Written & Produced by Mimi Nation-Dixon
Sit or Kneel has completed its current run.
