The improbable story of Neil Baldwin gets more improbable still. Who else among us could expect to spend their 76th birthday watching their life played out at the local theatre? Yet here Baldwin is at the New Vic, graciously waving from the top row as the actors take their bows.
And that’s actors in the plural – it takes seven of them to stage this extraordinary tale, all taking on the role of a man who, through some combination of charm and positive thinking, has befriended everyone from circus legend Charlie Cairoli to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
“As always with Neil, his exact status was unclear,” says one of the many Baldwins as they try to make sense of his story. Indeed, the staging hovers on the edge of the surreal. There is something dreamlike about the way Baldwin becomes a one-man welcome party for Keele University freshers, among them Malcolm Clarke who co-wrote the book on which the show is based. That he eventually received an honorary degree is no less likely than his spell as a circus clown or his employment as a mascot for Stoke City football club.
In her knowing adaptation – co-written, naturally, with Baldwin himself – director Theresa Heskins extends the line of improbability to include the 2014 release of the Bafta-winning Marvellous with Toby Jones and, indeed, the making of this stage production. Among the many Baldwins in this freewheeling show, Michael Hugo plays the “real Neil”, shaping the story and commenting on the performances as he goes.
On an open set by Lis Evans, given definition by Daniella Beattie’s clever lighting, the in-the-round staging is about community and possibility. Community, because it’s a quintessentially local story (the man sitting next to me recalls Baldwin judging a cake competition) and possibility, because everything is up for grabs – including actor Gareth Cassidy’s many accents.
Perhaps the production is a little too fond of its own theatricality, but its tone of playfulness is infectious. Amid the fun and games, you almost don’t notice the questions it raises about our treatment of people with learning disabilities. His is a story of struggle as well as improbable achievement.
At the New Vic theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, until 9 April.
