THE VIGIL - PAST & PRESENT

I first came across The Vigil in 1978 when the Apollo Players staged the play on the Isle of Wight. I
played Sadoc and Magdalene was played by Joy Osborne who radio listeners may remember as Myra
Hill, the chirpy young cockney in “Mrs Dale’s Diary”. I found the play extremely moving, particularly
the scenes with Magdalene, and later recommended the play to the Bognor Regis Christian Drama
Group, a new group created by the Curate Richard Lindsay from St. Richard’s Church. The Vigil
became the BRCDG’s second production in 1981 and note from the cast list below that three of us in
the present cast were involved in that production - John Hayward and David Rosser are repeating
their roles as Director and Saul respectively and I’m now on the defence rather than the attack!

Some time ago the touring Saltmine Theatre Company staged The Cross and the Switchblade at the
Alexandra Theatre and one of the leading actors stayed with us. He noticed The Vigil script on the
shelves and over dinner expressed a keen interest in staging the play and borrowed the script. Last
year Saltmine did a national tour of The Vigil and I do hope my script helped in some way! Losing the
script though meant I was without the English version of the play to check against the American
version John acquired for this production. David Rosser (who had learnt his lines from his original
English script) and I were rather concerned to find that the text is really quite different! I hope though
that the play proves to be as powerful, moving and thought provoking as the two previous productions
were for me.

Peter Green

1981 Production of The Vigil

Performed by the Bognor Regis Christian Drama Group