Peter Viney's Blog

Book & Lyrics by Richy Hughes
Music & Lyrics by Tim Sutton
Based on the book by William Kamkwamba & Bryan Mealer

Directed by Lynette Linton
Designed by Frankie Bradshaw

Royal Shakespeare Company
Swan Theatre, Stratford Upon Avon

Saturday 21st March 2026, 13.30

CAST
Alistair Nwachukwu- William Kamkwamba, schoolboy inventor
Idriss Kargbo- Gilbert Mofat, William’s best friend
Tesemaye Bob-Egbe– Annie Kamkwamba UNDERSTUDY Choolwe Laing Muntanga
Choolwe Laing Muntanga – Mika Kamkwamba UNDERSTUDY Yana Penrose
Owen Chaponda – Mike Kachigunda, science schoolteacher / Blessings a Mphala boy
McCallan Connell – Chief Wimbe, Gilbert’s father
Madeline Appiah- William’s mother, Agnes Kamkwamba
Sfiso Mazibuko – William’s father, Tryewll Kamkwamba
Eddy Elliot- Jeremiah Kamkwamba / Patience Mphala boy
Newtion Matthews – Mister Ofesi, school headmaster
Tomi Ogbaro- Mizeck, Mphala boy
Helena Pipe- Edith Sikelo
Shaka Kalokoh – Charity, hyena, Mphala boy
Yana Penrose– Khamba, village dog, The Wind UNDERSTUDY Lori Barker-
Lori Barker- ensemble
Alex Okoampa – ensemble

MUSIC
Ashton Moore- keyboards, MD
Joe Archer- guitar
Oboh Angiama – bass
Shane Forbes – drums
Jason Chowdhury- percussion

The note for this was in the programme we bought the night before, and everyone seemed extremely accomplished in the parts so we guess that the rearranged cast had been running for a while. The cast list does not explain the number of parts most of them played. Tripling? Quadrupling? Quintupling?

This production follows the 2019 film, and will go on to spend the summer at the Soho Theatre in London.

It’s a true story, set in Malawi. First there was the autobiographical book by William Kamkwamba (with Bryan Mealer), then the film. Instant summary:

William Kamkwamba wa sa a thirteen-year-old boy who lives in a village in Malawi suffering from severe drought and famine. He is the first of his family to attend secondary school but is thrown out because his family can no longer afford to pay the fees. When he sees the suffering of his family and his village, he sneaks back into his school’s library and learns how to build a windmill to pump water and saves his family and his village from starvation.

The musical ends with footage of an interview with William Kamkwamba when he was nineteen. We had thought it would be a cosy green-oriented tale, but it is much stronger than that.

The set is realistic, detailed and extends to the musician’s gallery. Both buildings can swivel to show William’s house left, or the library right, and the Chief’s house, also right. There were a lot of Africans in the audience to see the show. The first five minutes for us was adjusting to accent, but then we were fine.

A great deal is the struggle between William (Alistair Nwachukwu) and his father (played by Sfiso Mazibuko). William’s best friend is Gilbert (Idriss Kargbo), a live wire, and son of the local chief.

They have run-ins with the local lads, and the headmaster of the school. The science teacher Mike Kachigunda (Owen Chaponda ) is sympathetic to William, basically because Mike is in love with William’s sister, Annie (Choolwe Laing Muntanga) and uses William as a letter carrier between them on the pretext that it’s about her university application.

Gilbert works out the ploy and they use it to persuade Mike to allow them access to the school library after William is expelled because his parents can’t pay the fees. All Malawi schools had fees at that time.

This is how William discovers a used textbook on wind turbines and sets out first to power a radio with bike pedals then to build a prototype and finally the turbine. He needs his dad’s bike. His mother (Madeleine Appiah) falls ill with malaria. A group of four village lads, the Mphala boys are recurrent throughout (all doubled!)

It’s not all cosy at all. The representative from ‘Imperial tobacco’ arrives buying up land, and William’s drunken uncle sells his portion for a pittance. I was reminded that the 80s and 90s were when the tobacco companies were advertising low tar and less nicotine in the West, while increasing the levels in the Third World to ensure addiction. The other issue (not in this play) were baby formula companies promoting milk formulas with pictures of a mother on the tin in Africa. They had not allowed that the formula had to be mixed with water, which was unsafe over most of the areas.

Then there are symbolic figures, the hyena, and the wind.

During the problems with drought, the president appears with bodyguards. When the village chief protests that nothing is being done to help them, the black suited bodyguards rough up the village chief (McCallan Connell ) who will eventually die as a result of his injuries. The discussions of starvation are genuinely affecting. It is resolved when William’s mum persuades his dad that they have shown William the sky, now they have to let him fly – believe that he can do it. Yes, it works.

So in the end, William and his father work together. I must say I was worried when William went up one side of the triangular structure on his own with no one to weight the otrher side.

It is a musical. The music divides between African, and Western musical. The cast almost certainly won’t be from Malawi, nor neighbouring Zambia. They’re sub-Saharan African, but that’s akin to saying, ‘They’re European’. There are sections which I assume are in Chichewa, the language 70% of Malawi speak. It is from the Bantu language group so some may know Bantu languages. whatever, they all have to sing in it. The outstanding music is the African pieces, and the African dancing is exuberantly athletic. Size is no barrier to flexibility. The conventional Western music by Tim Sutton often comes in small chunks which works well.

The major singer is Sfiso Mazibuko as William’s dad, though most of the cast get a decent solo. William’s mum and sister are both strong lead singers. I liked the conventional musical stuff, which is not always true. For the African pieces the percussionist was spotlit.

The lighting involved projected shapes and drawings on all surfaces. Extremely good, as was the sky changing in colour. I’m not a dog person, but the dog puppetry, manipulated on stage, was touchingly good. Like Old Shep, it dies.

For us it was a matinee add on to Henry V the night before. We didn’t have high expectations, but we were grabbed immediately, enthused by the tremendous energy, we loved it and leapt up with everyone else for the instant standing ovation at the end. It will be in London after Stratford for a long run. One to see.

OVERALL: ****

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

Five star
Theatre & Tonic *****

four star
Domenic Cavendish, The Telegraph ****
Michael Davies, What’s On Stage ****
Tyler Fayose, West End Best Friend ****

three star
Arifa Akbar, The Guardian ***
Holly O’Mahoney, The Stage ***
Raphael Kohn, All That Dazzles ***

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