Frank Capra’s 1946 movie about George Bailey, the Bedford Falls samaritan saved from suicide by a guardian angel who shows him all the good he has done, is a celebration of neighbourliness. Depending on your world view, it’s either deeply uplifting or causes the cockles of your heart to combust in protest at so much vigorous warming.
It may be possible to reinvent the film on stage, perhaps in the style of David Cromer’s hyper-realistic take on that other paean to small-town values, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, seen at the Almeida in 2014. This certainly doesn’t. But Mary Elliott Nelson’s adaptation and Gavin Stride’s production have a raggedy and unforced charm as a cast of four – led by Jack Reid as George and Natalia Campbell as the Angel – offer up the entire population of Bedford Falls with some success.
Produced by Farnham Maltings and touring to 45 rural communities across the UK, the story retains its hokey American setting but the design, which places the audience at the heart of the action, is a reminder that this is about us, here and now. Whereas the movie is a fantasy, this stage version cleverly makes us think about our lives and how we fit into our communities. There are moments when the cast directly address the audience, touch a shoulder, single out one member with a searching look or sit among us, when this becomes a reckoning: of disappointments, discontents but also unacknowledged achievements.
This isn’t going to make any best-of-2016 lists. But the show knows what it’s doing and who it’s doing it for, reminding us that our everyday dealings with others are as good a place as any to start to change the world.
• At Rudry Parish Hall, Caerphilly, 13 January, then touring until 31 January.
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