About the Show

An audacious comedy about the effects of city workers moving to & taking over rural communities.

In rural Northamptonshire, the locals are furious when plans to build a new high-speed railway - to make the townie's commutes quicker - are announced. The route of the railway is set to go through Barbara Honeybone’s house, and she's having none of it. Barbara’s grandson Peter works for the townies and it’s his job to convince the village that building the train is in their best interest.

Syresham in Northamptonshire is not quite the Cotswolds, but it does have Syresham’s Got Talent, the headline event at the country fair. There’ll be songs, dancing, and Kevin’s meat raffle ...

Critic Reviews (6)

"The production is an exciting springboard across all areas of it from the veterans to the new talent."
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“This is a story that’s all about subverting easy assumptions, confounding stereotypical expectations around rural people’s attitudes and motivations while commenting thoughtfully on the endless clash between modernisation and tradition.”
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" This might be a realistic picture of a Brexit-supporting, overlooked pocket of rural England. ... ‘Village Idiot’ feels more like presentation of them, and for all its talk of ‘progress’, I wanted it to display a lot more."
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“...a talented cast and stunning production make this run of ‘Village Idiot’ an enjoyable evening”
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"This is a wonderfully diverse and capable cast clearly having a lot of fun on stage, I left with the feeling that this could have made double the impact in half the time."
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As state-of-the-nation dramas go, they don’t usually ask you not to be a c*nt in the first two minutes. Nadia Fall’s production of Samson Hawkins’ Village Idiot, opens with a welcoming start but proceeds to offend everything that moves. Yet this is equal-opportunities offence
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Trailer

Creative team

Theatre Royal Stratford East

Producer

Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company