★★★★
Currently touring and showing at Derby Theatre, Wonder Boy, written by Ross Willis and directed by Sally Cookson, follows twelve-year-old artist Sonny (Hilson Agbangbe) as he struggles to make himself heard with a stammer. Passed between foster homes and struggling with the loss of his mother, his closest friend is Captain Chatter (Ciaran O’Breen), the protagonist of the comic book he has been drawing. But when Sonny is sent to the Deputy Head’s office after retaliating against a bully, he meets unexpected new friends and begins a journey towards finding his voice.
Agbangbe shines in the lead role. His portrayal of Sonny is one that is particularly full of life—a realistic depiction of an isolated and grieving teenage boy, but also of one who is witty and loves Star Wars and wants to be heard. These details are as well-communicated as Sonny’s anger: the fine strokes are as important as the broad ones and Agbangbe renders them all well. Another extremely strong performance is Naia Elliott-Spence’s character Roshi. A comedic voice during the more anxious beats of the early parts of the show, her performance bounces perfectly off Agbangbe’s and gives the audience a reminder to breathe.
Particularly impressive is how in-touch the show feels with current generations of young people. Theatre for or about secondary-school-age characters can often fall into the trap of feeling preachy or overly-sanitised—undoubtedly most will have memories of productions they watched in their schooldays, trying to make jokes that fit in with current pop-culture and humour, and often failing quite miserably. Wonder Boy, however, steers clear of this, with jokes such as Roshi’s internet-reference-filled summary of Hamlet accurately reflecting how modern teens talk and what they talk about.
The avoidance of sanitisation also applies to the characters’ emotions. Sonny is understandably incredibly frustrated and angry with his situation at times, and he is given the space within the play to feel this. He can, at times, shout and swear and lash out in ways that feel realistic for his character, and while the impact this has on others is taken into consideration, he is not invalidated for the way he feels in the first place.
A particularly creative aspect of the show is its use of live creative captioning. The captions appear against the wall of the set as characters are saying them, often in bold comic-style fonts straight from Sonny’s imagination. These are also used for Captain Chatter, who does not speak aloud but who communicates to Sonny through BSL.
With this attention to the artistic aspects of the show in mind, an area in which it would have been nice to see more development was Sonny’s love of drawing. While it is important in the opening beats of the show and he talks to his teacher about it, it feels as though this falls more to the wayside further into the show. It would have been wonderful to see this passion maintained more consistently within the story, particularly as it is reflected so attentively in the set. Captain Chatter, who accompanies Sonny onstage for much of the production until Sonny begins to stand on his own, is not always given a lot to do. The scenes he does inhabit are very dynamic and fun—there is a memorable battle with an imaginary version of Shakespeare himself—but this could have been pushed further by including him more when Sonny still relies on him.
Overall, Wonder Boy is a dynamic and creative show with a strong script that accurately reflects today’s young people and tells them not only that they deserve to be heard but that it is important to listen. Once finished in Derby, it will continue on to tour York, Southampton, Salford and Northampton.
Words by Casey Langton
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