Writer: Ross Willis
Director: Sally Cookson
A Monster Calls, a previous production from director Sally Cookson, featured a protagonist struggling with guilt and grief and was a dark, brooding and large-scale production with a powerful emotional punch. Wonder Boy, written by Ross Willis, features a similarly-burdened central character but is zany, eye-popping bright and intimate yet just as powerful.
Talented teenage artist Sonny (Hilson Agbangbe) has a stutter which prevents him from interacting with his peers or expressing himself verbally. He channels his frustrations and anxieties into a comic he creates featuring superhero Captain Chatter (Ciaran O’Breen) who does not lack self-confidence and can tackle the demons of small talk and public speaking. Sonny is intrigued and intimidated by the boisterous Roshi (Naia Elliott-Spence) who decides they will be friends and will not take ‘no’ for an answer. Stressed-out deputy head teacher Wainwright (Eva Scott) tries to make a connection with Sonny but a crisis is reached when overbearing and manipulative head teacher Ms. Fish (Jessica Murrain) casts Sonny in a speaking role in the school play.
Author Ross Willis is clearly on the side of the youngsters in the play and in the audience. Events are filtered through the perception of the teenagers, so the teachers are every bit as profane as the pupils and decidedly eccentric if not psychotic – Ms Fish mentioning in passing she enjoys licking her cats. A disagreement between the teachers descends into a playground squabble. There is a hilarious extensive, expletive –ridden summary of Hamlet by Roshi who concludes the tragedy is a shit version of Disney’s The Lion King.
There are, however, some aspects of the script which might be developed further. An act of violence mentioned late in the play is left resolved and there is no sense of Sonny realising he can manage without Captain Chatter and they should part company.
Director Sally Cookson sets a larger-than-life atmosphere like a comic-book come to life. The backdrop to the stage looks like a comic book panel knocked sideways and the adults are dressed by costume designer Katie Sykes in bright primary colours. A striking feature is the vibrant creative captioning from Tom Newell. The typeface projected onto the rear of the stage varies according to the speaker and dramatically rushes around the screen in the pop-art style of the camp 1960’s Batman TV series. When Roshi gets carried away and speaks at a rapid rate the captions over-write each other.
The teachers represent two sides of the same coin. One accepts the need to spend time with and coax effort from the pupils whereas the other has gone over to the dark side, driven frantic by the need to provide statistical evidence of progress.
Ironically, Ciaran O’Breen never speaks as Captain Chatter but maintains the cartoonish vibe. His gawky, slender limbs twist like rubber bands and he even manages to manipulate his eyebrows to comic effect. There is neediness to O’Breen’s performance as if Captain Chatter senses Sonny overcoming his stutter will render the Captain redundant. Captain Chatter has moved from being a fantasy figure helping Sonny cope with his situation to a crutch that needs to be put aside.
Appropriately for someone struggling to speak, Hilson Agbangbe, in his professional debut, gives a very physical performance . His body trembles with the sheer effort of trying to expel words from his tormented system making clear it is pushing him to the point of violence. There is sharp contrast with Naia Elliott-Spence (also making her professional debut) finding vulnerability under Roshi’s brash exterior revealing the extent to which she is hurt by other people misunderstanding or misrepresenting her actions.
Wonder Boy does not simply use young people as the subject of the play, it is written and staged in a manner to attract and hold their attention. Wonder Boy is an excellent demonstration, for anyone attending their first play, of what can be achieved in theatre.
Runs 13th to 16th November 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
engages young people
