“The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind” at @sohoplace

Maryam Philpott in the West End
★★★☆☆
15 May 2026

For the people of Malawi, the choice between the hyena, symbolizing death, and the wind, symbolizing life, is stark in Richy Hughes and Tim Sutton’s musical The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, which transfers to London from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Alistair Nwachukwu  and Idriss Kargbo.
Photo credit: Tyler Fayose.

It is based on the true story of William Kamkwamba’s wind turbine and adapted from his book (co-written with Bryan Mealer) and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s subsequent film. This sentimental show may be overly repetitive and digressive, but its strong community creation alongside an individual and collective triumph over adversity narrative results in plenty of feel-good moments.

Unable to attend school regularly when his family can’t pay his fees, 14-year-old William is determined to continue his learning, even when his frustrated father tries to encourage him to help manage the small patch of land the family farms. But when a drought comes, the harvest fails and the whole village is soon struggling to survive on the little food they can produce. With no one coming to help them, William has a plan to build a makeshift wind turbine, although no one really believes it will work.

The first half of the musical (book and lyrics by Hughes, music and lyrics by Sutton) meanders a little but builds a strong sense of William’s family and the wider village, groups of good, decent people doing their best to get by, respecting the village elder Chief Wimba (McCallam Connell), and supporting their children to learn as much as they can.

And there are plenty of interesting ideas in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, from the balance between modernity and tradition, magic and science that challenges William’s parents in particular, desperately wanting to look to the future instead of repeating the mistakes of their parents’ generation, to the difficulties of agrarian economies beset by climate change and migration of young people to the cities where different kinds of work and a very different life is possible. And within this the characterization, the vibrancy, and sense of belonging in this Malawian village is nicely rendered.

But they are not fully developed themes, becoming plot obstacles to William’s eventual triumph (which is never in doubt) instead of opportunities to flesh out the subplots and characters.

Act Two doesn’t quite match the energy of its predecessor, focusing more on the impacts of climate change, death, and the struggle as conditions worsen. Here, songs tend to repeat information provided in the dialogue instead of taking the story forward on their own, and scenes between William (a sweet Alistair Nwachukwu) and his cousin Jeremiah (Eddie Elliott) retain a similar note of anger and misunderstanding. It is designed to make the eventual ending all the more uplifting but it’s clear Lynette Linton’s 2 hour and 45-minute show could shed at least 20 minutes with a tighter edit.

@sohoplace closes off a quarter of its seats to replicate the RSC’s original thrust stage but doesn’t use the different levels enough to justify not reworking this as an in-the-round performance. However, Sutton’s musical landscape is rich and interesting, drawing influences from musical theatre but also African folk and even ska that add variety to the soundtrack, while Shelley Maxwell’s highlights the same references, creating choreography that is lively and exciting. It is an admirable story that builds a warm community in the auditorium, offering just enough jeopardy to earn a happy ending all round.