Here is an audaciously inventive, sparky yet sensitive, giddily enjoyable new play that deserves to be packed to the rafters with kids on school trips. Ross Willis has created an extraordinary exploration of adolescence with his tale of 12-year-old Sonny, who invents a superhero, Captain Chatter, to help him with his stammer. It is brilliantly performed in this dream of a production from director Sally Cookson, complete with eye-popping projections, a lurid lime-and-orange colour scheme and stunningly expressive physicality all round.
Raphel Famotibe makes a confident stage debut as Sonny, whose homemade comic books introduce us to Captain Chatter (the superb Ramesh Meyyappan, dressed as a sort of space-age sprinter). Sonny’s relationship with him veers from sidekick to nemesis: Captain Chatter helps save him from having to speak in public but Sonny must ultimately learn to live without him, especially when he lands a role in his school’s production of Hamlet.
