Review: THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND, @sohoplace
This new musical adaptation of William Kamkwamba's memoir transfers from the RSC
In many ways, @sohoplace is the perfect venue for The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind: the intimate thrust staging is perfect for elaborate ensemble choreography and carousing the audience. This new musical, based on the memoir and film of the same name, is at its heart a story about community, and it works if we feel as immersed in that community as possible.
For the uninitiated, this is the true story of William Kamkwamba, a 13-year-old Malawian boy who, using only scrap metal and parts from his father’s bicycle, invented a windmill to power a broken water pump in his village during a time of drought and political instability. William eventually got an Ivy League education and founded a non-profit dedicated to sustainable technology in Malawi, and so the heartwarming theatrical adaptation writes itself.
In Richy Hughes’ book, the broad strokes of any rags-to-riches fable are evident, and sometimes painfully so. William receives the germ of his big idea from a kindly school librarian, and persists despite scepticism from his friends (who call him a “windmill whackjob”, in one of lyricist Tim Sutton’s less subtle turns of phrase) and his family’s poverty. We even see a clip from the real William’s 2009 TED talk at the end, in case we hadn’t got the message yet.
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But cynics will be won over. The strongest musical numbers here are those which embrace the sizeable ensemble, and conjure up a sense of people sticking together through thick and thin – Sutton’s score spans both rousing reggae-infused numbers and haunting funerary chants. Frankie Bradshaw’s set, too, coats the back wall of the theatre in long grass and corrugated iron, drawing the audience right into the heart of the village, even as it is beset by thunderstorms (some very effective lighting sound design by Oliver Fenwick and George Dennis).
Some of the clunkier expositional dialogue can be excused by the larger-than-life characters who deliver it, including a warm comic turn from Idriss Kargbo as the Best Friend who always wants to copy William’s homework, and Tsemaye Bob-Egbe as his sister, on the brink of her first romance. All the while, Alistair Nwachukwu as William provides something of an anchor, balancing boyish gregariousness with the stoicism of a child who has taken on responsibility for his community at a young age.
The musical set pieces can be a distraction, but eventually the show hits some more profound emotional beats, too. Sifiso Mazibuko as William’s father (the role played by Chiwetel Ejiofor in the film) is a compelling portrait of a man torn between belief in his child’s ambitions and faith in the status quo, all wrapped up in a frequently reprised power ballad called ‘This I Know’. Meanwhile, William’s faithful dog is an impressively emotive and naturalistic puppet (designed by Laura Cubitt and Nick Barnes) that produces genuine pathos at key moments.
This musical is no reinvention of the theatrical wheel, and perhaps it doesn’t have to be. Some may be frustrated by the tidiness with which William’s story is told, or the hints at Malawian folklore woven into the choreography but not probed further. But if this show set out only to inject a little heart into these darkest of times, then it has succeeded.
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind plays at @sohoplace until 18 July
Photo credits: Tyler Fayose
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