'Full circle' moments as New Vic marks 40 years

A small Staffordshire theatre which made history as Europe's first purpose-built theatre-in-the-round has been marking 40 years of innovative performances.

The New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme officially opened on 13 August 1986 and was supported by a public appeal which raised more than £1m in donations.

In the years since it has hosted 580 plays, and has seen Ben Kingsley, Freddie Jones, Bob Hoskins and Robert Powell tread the boards.

Its impact has been felt not just in north Staffordshire, but globally, as a number of its plays have been toured far beyond its walls.

These include a 2013 adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel Around The World In 80 Days by Laura Eason, which is one of the theatre's top-performing main stage plays.

It sees eight actors take on 109 different characters, and has opened as far afield as New York.

The play returned to the New Vic earlier this year for a special anniversary run, with original cast member Michael Hugo reprising his role as Passepartout.

"We're blessed to be part of a show that's so good, so popular, and that people want it back so much," Hugo said.

He has starred in more than 40 plays at the New Vic, including a highly-acclaimed performance as the main character Neil "Nello" Baldwin in Marvellous in 2022.

The stage play was adapted from the BAFTA-winning BBC film of the same name and celebrated local man Baldwin's extraordinary life.

Actor Toby Jones took on the title role in that 2014 film version, and said the challenge when playing him was partly in understanding how Nello helped other people.

"The drama shows, I think, how he enjoys life," Jones said.

It was a full-circle moment, as Jones' late father Freddie spoke the first word on stage at the New Vic.

Marvellous was co-written by Nello himself along with lifelong friend Malcolm Clarke.

Audiences followed Nello's story from meeting football stars and politicians to working as a clown and receiving an honorary degree from Keele University.

The production later transferred to the West End where it took residency at Soho Place - and Nello was in the audience every night.

Meanwhile, back at the New Vic, Nello was honoured with his own permanent seat – in Box Eight – marking his contribution to the area.

Another play which came back to the New Vic this year was Good Golly Miss Molly, originally produced back in 1989.

Its writer and director Bob Eaton returned especially for its 40th anniversary year to direct it.

For artistic director Theresa Heskins, taking on her role in 2007 was a dream come true.

"I think that sense of local people being so committed to the theatre and us being committed back, has tided us through that 40 years of amazing experiences," she said of the milestone anniversary.

But it is catering assistant Paula Prince who has been at the New Vic since the very beginning.

"The opening day was amazing, just all these people just everywhere – it was wonderful."

There had been a lot of changes in the intervening years, she said, including the introduction of educational programmes and the community cafe initiatives.

The New Vic was built to replace the original Victoria Theatre, which operated out of a converted cinema in nearby Hartshill from 1962.

Stoke-on-Trent born Peter Cheeseman - the New Vic's first artistic director – decided during the planning stage that no audience member should be more than 28ft (8.5m) away from the main acting area.

Architect John Sambrook said one of the initial hurdles was explaining how the building would operate to some of its financial backers.

"They couldn't understand the concept of three vomitories - two vomitories for the public to walk through and then the big vomitory for the actors.

"They couldn't get it into their heads that the audience actually walked on to the stage and across the stage."

Cheeseman had insisted that for theatre in-the-round to work as intended, the audience had to feel as though they were part of the performance and the actors had to, in effect, be part of the audience.

Arguably the jewel in the crown of the New Vic's anniversary year programme is a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It opened this week.

"I'm buzzing like a bee on a Berocca," said comedian Russell Kane who is taking on the part of Romeo opposite Natalie Cassidy's Juliet.

"It is 95% Shakespeare's words - but if there is something in there that is so archaic and silly it no longer makes sense it has been removed," Kane said of their rendition.

"My aim was to get to a point where it was so convincing that when you watch me and Natalie speak to each other you think 'oh they're in love'."

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