There have been Orson Welles soundalikes but without the girth at the Fringe. Multiple Robert Burns’ but none as good as when played by John Cairney. There have been Einstein, Bill Clinton, the Queen for goodness sake. All recognisable figures where impression has to come into play.
Then there are the relatively unknown characters who have remarkable stories to tell but whose faces would never be recognised.
Former Scotland footballer John “The Ghost” White from Musselburgh who played for Bonnyrigg Rose, Alloa, Falkirk and most famously for Tottenham Hotspur where he won the European Cup Winners Cup, two English league championships and two FA Cups alongside the likes of Jimmy Greaves falls into that category.
That actor Cal Newman has the exuberance and skill to make us feel we know him as well as his son Rob, who he also plays, tell us all about his acting ability.
He makes them both believable and chronicles John’s story from the back streets of Musselburgh to his ultimate tragic death from a lightning bolt on a London golf course at the age of just 27 back in 1964.
The one man play has a long and demanding script that Newman handles with aplomb.
He has played both roles for a few years now after Rob White, who was only six months old when his dad has hit by lightning, commissioned director Martin Murphy to write the script.
He is so good at it he could spend the next few years touring the play throughout the UK as there will always be a football audience who don’t usually go to plays who will be intrigued enough to watch.
Whether there are enough of the next generation to stick with it remains to be seen as there were more bald men and those with Bobby Charlton comb overs in the audience than you usually see at fringe shows.
The play deserves to break out of its sporting straight jacket as it has other stories to tell.
That John White, he was called the ghost because of the way he glided past defenders unnoticed, had a child out of wedlock that was hushed up to satisfy the societal mores of the times gives the story a different twist . It was John’s wife Sandra rather than him that sent the money every month to the lady who was bringing up the daughter John never met.
His tragic death showed the fragility of life and how it is a series of sliding door moments.
Playing golf in the rain on his own at the Crews Hill course in north London he hit three balls off the tee. He could have hit any of them as his second shot but decided to go with the own closest to the trees so that he could shelter from the storm.
That was the wrong choice and had tragic consequences as a lightning strike hit him and killed him instantly as he stood under the trees.
Ultimately, the play is less about the beautifully executed turns on the pitch by White and far more about the enduring shadow cast by loss. In Newman’s capable hands, John White isn’t just a nostalgic footballing legend retrieved from the archive. He is a fully fleshed, deeply human figure whose sudden departure left a quiet, echoing void that his son Rob has never filled.
For a Fringe often dominated by loud impressions of famous faces, this nuanced, deeply moving performance proves that the most compelling portraits are sometimes the ones we never saw coming.
