Neil Baldwin's Marvellous Adventures
“Neil got very good at looking after himself even though he couldn’t tie his own shoe laces. “
Neil’s mother
The opening night of the show Marvellous is really about Nica Burns’ brand new theatre, @sohoplace, the first new theatre in London’s West for 50 years. It is a magical palace of black marble, chrome and tiny lights like a beautiful starlit sky and very pretty and full access for the disabled.
With an auditorium in the round and 605 seats, every seat has a clear view of the stage. It is the ideal size to take some of the transfers that need a more intimate space than London’s West End Victorian theatres can provide. So when you are getting a new theatre ready to open you want to concentrate on getting the space right and not double your worries with a brand new play or musical.
The answer is to import an existing, feel good production which can appeal to all ages and a diverse community. The New Vic Theatre in Stoke on Trent first came to my attention in August with their excellent show Tom, Dick and Harry about the planning of escapes from Stalag Luft III. What was outstanding for me was that the director of the play and two of the actors had researched and written it, as well as being actively involved in its production. The director Theresa Heskins and Michael Hugo playing in Marvellous were two of those creating Tom, Dick and Harry.
Marvellous written by himself and Malcolm Clarke is about a remarkable and eccentric man called Neil Baldwin who despite being born in 1946, with something not yet called a learning disability. created all kinds of events for himself, forging paths never trodden before by someone with a disability. He comes from Newcastle under Lyme in the heart of the potteries.
In his time, as a self starting volunteer, Neil has welcomed new students to the University of Keele, been a clown in a circus and been a mascot for, and played in a charity match for, his local football team Stoke City. He is a true entrepreneur, in as far as all these opportunities, he has made for himself.
The production is fairly madcap with many different actors playing Neil at different times in his life as well as the very talented and zany Michael Hugo, a character fished out of the audience called the Real Neil. Throughout Hugo uses Neil’s halting words; Neil had speech therapy as a child, he has an autistic type pronunciation, effort being required to get the words out. His glasses and Stoke City red and white scarf are the Neil Costume.
We see him wearing a vicar’s collar and welcoming students to the University of Keele, befriending them. This is where the play’s co-author first met Neil. There are the celebrations for the 1966 World Cup held in the UK and won by England. We laugh with him as a circus clown where he works unpaid and shares a caravan with a monkey. His mother is horrified at his living conditions.
The Stoke football team are staged as if they are a Subbuteo game, moving only horizontally, witty and fun. The cooking demonstration is bedlam with flour, eggs and squirty cream. Followed by a sugar plum fairy dance and ballet to the “Girl from Ipanema”. Neil carries his supermarket size Bag of Life everywhere and produces props for the scenes.
A BBC film Marvellous in 2014 about his life wins two BAFTAS and Neil goes on the Graham Norton Show. The production is charming and the ensemble of actors, many of whom are neuro-divergent, play their part with verve. I loved Suzanne Ahmet’s affection for her son and giving him the freedom to pursue his many meetings with football and church celebrities.
Next @sohoplace has As You Like It, and Medea starring Sophie Okenodo in 2023. Well done Nica Burns for realising your own dream theatre.
Production Notes
Marvellous
Wrritten by Neil Baldwin and Malcolm Clarke
Directed by Theresa Heskins
Cast
Starring:
Alex Frost
Gareth Cassidy
Perry Moore
Charlie Bence
Jerone Marsh-Reid
Suzanne Ahmet
Mike Hugo
Daniel Murphy
Joe Sproulle
Creatives
Director: Theresa Heskins
Adapters: Theresa Heskins and Neil Baldwin
Designer: Lis Evans
Original Composer and Musical Director: Conrad Nelson
Composer and Musical Director: James Atherton
Movement Director: Beverley Norris Edmunds
Lighting and Projection Designer: Daniella Beattie
Sound Designer: Alex Day
Sound Designer: Paul Groothuis
Original Sound Designer: James Earls-Davis
Information
Running Time: Two hours 30 minutes with an interval
Booking to 26th November 2021
Theatre:
@sohoplace
4 Soho Place
London W1D 3BG
Tube: Tottenham Court Road
Telephone: 020 384 09611
Access: 0330 3335962
Website: www.sohoplace.org
Reviewed by Lizzie Loveridge
@sohoplace
on 21st October 2022