The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind: Good-hearted but long-winded

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - Sifiso Mazibuko (Trywell) & Alistair Nwachukwu - (Tyler Fayose)

This good-hearted but anodyne musical is based on the true story of Malawian boy William Kamkwamba, who at the age of 13 built a windmill to electrify and irrigate his family’s land in the teeth of a famine; he now runs a non-profit organisation.

His memoir about his remarkable life has already been adapted into a 2019 film written, directed by and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor: and now it’s become a sugar-sweet stage story with too many songs by composer Tim Sutton and writer Richy Hughes, who penned the lyrics together. The show passes the time agreeably but little of the music lingers in the ear or the mind, and you feel you’d learn just as much about William from his much shorter TED talk. Because, yes, this is somewhat long-winded.