DramaNorth East & YorkshireReview

Wonder Boy – York Theatre Royal

Reviewer: Ron Simpson

Writer: Ross Willis

Director: Sally Cookson

Taken on its own termsWonder Boy is an absolute triumph. Ross Willis’ script gives five actors meaty, unusual and dramatic/farcical parts. Director Sally Cookson joins with any number of other talents to produce a homogeneous unit. Benji Bower’s score is vital, full of drama and energy; Jonathan Everett supports it with explosive sound; to Tom Newell (and probably several others) goes the greatest credit, a slambang screen conveying everything from the stars in the sky to the words being spoken, their shape brilliantly reflecting the mood of the speaker. This was one case where the now traditional gesture to the technician at curtain call seemed totally justified.

Sonny stammers: he cannot say his own name. To begin with his only friend is Captain Chatter, a fantasy super-hero who’s not really that much of a super-hero, but he can talk, make small talk, and Sonny imagines him in all sorts of situations, backed by comic book titles on the screen. Sonny goes to a new school and meets up with Roshi, a wildly imaginative girl who makes outlandish claims, mostly at the top of her voice. Both are reported to Ms Wainwright, Deputy Head, who, in between loads of industrial language and a love for Star Wars, works on an initially violently reactive Sonny to help him control his stammer. Later Miss Fish, Headteacher, obsessive form-filler and cat obsessive, joins the mix in open warfare with Ms Wainwright.

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The strangeness that is its strength also poses one or two questions. Nobody expects the school scenes to be realistic, but a Deputy Head throwing paper planes between oaths is taking things a bit far. The Head is equally far out from reality, though the questions on her progress forms are alarmingly real. One could not be sure, but Roshi appears to develop homicidal tendencies. All this would be fun in an outrageously comic situation, but essentiallyWonder Boy is about Sonny’s frequently unwilling efforts to succeed – and, beyond that, the sufferings and struggles of stammerers.

For all that it’s a miraculous 90 minutes of theatre. Hilson Agbangbe, in his professional stage debut, conveys all the moods of Sonny with absolute conviction: not only stammering convincingly, but wrapping himself up in his own silent world and bursting out from that with desperation/triumph. Naia Elliott-Spence is a dramatic volcano as Roshi, especially in her wonderfully succinct summary of the plot of Hamlet, a play which becomes a test-case for Sonny’s speech. Eva Scott is tremendous as Ms Wainwright, her confession of her own problems with a stammer leading to the most productive scene with Sonny. Understudy Meg Matthews’ ice-maiden of Miss Fish evaporates in the thought of an assault on her cats – all highly unlikely, if equally entertaining. As for Captain Chatter, Ciaran O’Breen, less than heroic in his unflattering comic book hero costume, in the end flutters helplessly on the fringe of the action.

Eventually Sonny is given a reason for his stammer, his mother’s withdrawal from the world and, one imagines, suicide. Does this give sufficient attention to people who stammer for no particular reason? The members of a local group of stammerers, who had seen the play and greeted audience members on the way out, seemed to think so.

Runs until 2nd November 2024, before continuing on tour

The Reviews Hub Score

Spectacular!

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The Yorkshire & North East team is under the editorship of Jacob Bush. The Reviews Hub was set up in 2007. Our mission is to provide the most in-depth, nationwide arts coverage online.

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