Theatre / Reviews
Review: Wonder Boy, Bristol Old Vic – ‘A marvellous play about resilience’
There’s something incredibly vitalising about laughter in the face of crisis, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a play as simultaneously hilarious and devastating as Wonder Boy.
Yep, it’s back! After a hugely successful run in 2022, the Bristol Old Vic production is hitting the road and bringing its winning combination of aching emotion and side-splitting laughs to theatres across the UK.
We follow Sonny’s plight to overcome his stammer. Age-old small talk – “good weather, bad weather, British weather…” – strikes fear into him, whilst the motif of wanting “to soar!” plays out in fantasy sequences where lucid thoughts take shape, speech flows, and perceived shackles fall away.
is needed now More than ever
Hilson Agbangbe as Sonny in Wonder Boy 2024
For the entire runtime of just over 90 minutes, Sonny never leaves the stage. As such, the play’s emotional weight and outright watchability hinges on Hilson Agbangbe’s brilliant turn. Past the inner turmoil, tears and terror we come to moments of sweet clarity made possible only by the stellar supporting cast.
Eva Scott is incredible as Wainwright. Dripping with silly quips and enduring empathy, her turn as motivator extraordinaire makes Wainwright a key pivot in the play. If this is the classroom iteration of The King’s Speech, she is the Geoffrey Rush to Sonny’s stammering Colin Firth.
Roshi (Naia Elliott-Spence) injects boisterous humour into nearly every scene – especially her frenetic, Gen Z account of the Hamlet plot. But there’s also a tenderness there that unfolds beautifully as the play progresses.
And that’s just it. The character arcs are plenty, and they’re precisely what keeps your eyes glued to the stage. Sonny is front-and-centre, sure, but Wainwright and Roshi have their own frailties to confront.
Jessica Murrain’s dual turn as Sonny’s mother and headteacher Fish is a mixed bag. The former is full of ethereal love, paving the way for some of the play’s most touching scenes. The latter is far less subtle, with purposefully archaic (and sometimes excessively odd) behaviour playing into an overarching comment on the education system.
Surrealism is vital here, and mostly it works to great effect. There’s heaps of physical comedy that borders on slapstick, much of which comes via Sonny’s imaginary friend Captain Chatter.
There are shades of a young Rowan Atkinson in Ciaran O’Breen’s gangly movements and hilarious facial expressions, yet Captain Chatter feels somewhat unrealised as a character in his own right. Perhaps that makes perfect sense given he’s a figment, and it’s certainly a testament to Sonny’s own progress.
The creative captioning is genius – an amalgamation of developing thoughts, comic-book onomatopoeias, rushing words, struggle and sensation. The vernacular is rather colourful for a play that centres on 12-year-olds, but Tom Newell of Limbic Cinema nails the material. The weight of language is shown physically too, with Sonny at one point literally buried beneath the letters that taunt him.
The work of composer Benji Bower smoothens the many emotional switch-ups, from electronic work with a melancholy tinge to popping, empowering beats that accompany Sonny’s journey.
Set and costume designer Katie Sykes has serious fun in flourishes too, no more so than when three Shakespeares close in on Sonny as he starts preparing for his part in Hamlet. The play within a play (how fitting!) pushes the plot along – the fact “the Bard is coming!” makes an ensuing battle to articulate his words feel inevitable.
Written with wicked wit and terrific tenderness by Ross Willis, and shaped on the stage by Olivier Award-winning director Sally Cookson, Wonder Boy is a marvellous piece of theatre about resilience.
Its sadness is matched (if not wiped out) by the force of Sonny’s self-acceptance, culminating in total ownership of one fine line – ‘‘stand and unfold yourself!”
Wonder Boy is at Bristol Old Vic on September 6-21 at 7.30pm, with additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Thursday and Saturday (no shows on Sunday). Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk.
All photos: Steve Tanner
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