The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind - @sohoplace: a joyful celebration of all people can be

⭑⭑⭑⭑ - 86% • 5 minutes 14 seconds read time

Think back to you at 13. What were you doing? For me it was 2010, we were in a boyband renaissance, One Direction were being formed on the X Factor and the most important thing to me was that Harry Styles absolutely, categorically, 100% had to be in the band.

Which is about as far away from what William Kamkwamba’s life looked like when he was 13. It was 2001, and his village of Wimbe, like many across Malawi, was gripped by famine and drought. The grain reserves were sold off prematurely, the lands natural defences against extreme weather had been chopped down and sold to tobacconists, and it didn’t look hopeful that many of his community would last until the next years harvest.

But William loved to read, to learn, to build - to understand how and why things work the way they do. A chance discovery of a wind turbine in a book from the school library that he had tricked his way into after his family couldn’t afford the fees for him to attend sets him on the path that would change his life and save his village.

At just 13 years old, William Kamkwamba built a wind turbine to power his family home and a water pump that enabled their village to grow crops even in difficult weather conditions, saving his community from starvation.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a new musical that tells his remarkable story - and it does so remarkably well. Which will come as no surprise when you discover that Lynette Linton is directing a cast put together by Heather Basten that are moving through the story with choreography by Shelley Maxwell. I know, you’re nodding reading that because of course it landed so well with those three players leading the team.

There’s a real creative spirit to this production, and given the story it’s telling, it really needed that. It feels like everyone involved in the creative vision said “Right, let’s be 13 again and play.” It combines elements like puppetry, interpretive movement, projections, and surround sound quite fantastically to produce a transportive theatre experience.

This is an empowering story of a young boy who overcomes, but beneath that and for it to be possible, there has to be something for him to overcome. And famine doesn’t happen by accident, and doesn’t leave without causing deep scars - telling the truth of that is vital for this story to work, but it’s also hard to do when you want a family friendly production that’s not too heavy.

Enter the hyena - used as a metaphor metaphor for all the threats that loom over the village - the tobacco companies lingering at the boundaries ready to snap up more resources, the hunger creeping in. It’s a great tool for storytelling and it makes for one of the most beautiful sequences of movement not just in this show, but that i’ve seen in any west end musical. I was so blown away by it, I remember thinking midway through “I wish I could rewind this and watch it again and again” - hats off to Shelley Maxwell.

Lynette Linton is a creator of community. It’s what she did with Danny Bailey at Bush Theatre that has given the space an identity, it’s clear in the shows she chooses for herself, and it’s why she was the perfect director for this piece. Because community is at the heart of it, and feeling as though you are part of that community for 2 and a half hours is crucial to its success. And she does that without you even noticing, enticing you in from the very beginning as the cast move through the space you are sharing with them, engaging directly with you the audience.

It’s a story of joy and pain, love and loss, progress and fear. The tensions between opposing forces, and its performed by an embarrassment of riches style cast. The Kamkwamba family is lead by Sifiso Mazibuko as Trywell, Madeline Appiah as Agnes, and their kids Tsemaye Bob-Egbe as Annie, and Alistair Nwachuckwu as William.

They all walk that line between two points fantastically well, within themselves and within their relationships with each other - especially Sifiso and Alistair as they navigate the complexities of a father son dynamic at a time of struggle. Sifiso plays the pain of a husband and father who feels he’s failing those he loves but wants no one to know how he’s struggling, whilst Alistair plays the contradictions that co-exist as a child is forced far too quickly to grow up. Which is something Idriss Kargbo also does with huge success as William’s best friend Gilbert, who is forced to grow up quickly alongside William but for different reasons.

The whole cast are essential and so I can’t speak on them all, but I must highlight 3 of them whose work in this is just exquisite. Newtion Matthews plays around 4 distinct roles in this piece, and every single one has clearly thought out vocal changes, physicalities, presence in the space. They are a chameleon and I’m thrilled to get to see them display so much of their range in this piece. Choolwe Laina Muntange as the Wind is - truly no pun intended - breathtaking. Her movements, her grace and her strength, her vocalisations - she is impossible to look away from whenever she’s on stage. And finally Shaka Kalokoh as the Hyena, who does not speak a single word the entire show, but through movement alone conveys so much, palpably changing the tone of a scene in the flick of his head or the bounce of his walk. I have never been to the ballet - I don’t want to hear a word Timothee - but I imagine that’s the type of enraptured people feel watching a ballet.

It does suffer from some minor pacing issues in Act 1 - the first half of act 1 seems a little slow to find its feet, and the second half seems to rush to tell the story as a result - but it really doesn’t detract from the overall experience of the show, especially as for me Act 2 is magic. I also would have liked if the wind actually had a full song - even if that was just 2 minutes of vocalisations and not necessarily lyrics, but that is perhaps me simply being greedy for more of Choolwe’s magnificent voice.

It’s an honour to learn of William and his story and it’s a joyous piece of theatre, but it does make me wonder how many William’s are out there that we don’t know about? It’s easy in the UK to take it for granted that we are safe, children will have their talents nurtured and their skills developed, and opportunities will arise. Which should be the reality for children all over the world, but right now famine in Yemen, civil War in Sudan, genocide in Palestine to name a few travesties - they mean children just like William are having to live in the most difficult circumstances, and every single day they overcome the unimaginable.

I hope people go and see this show, I hope they are filled with hope and happiness and inspiration, but I hope they also leave steadfast in the conviction that children the world over deserve to not just survive, but to live in circumstances that allow them to thrive.

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind plays at @SohoPlace until July 18th.