The Boy With Wings
Based on the book by Lenny Henry and adapted for the stage by Arvind Ethan David, The Boy With Wings is the story of 12-year-old Tunde. He is just a regular boy who wants to hang out with his friends Dev and Kylie, but his mum won’t let him do anything ‘dangerous’ like playing sports or going outside! So, when Tunder decides to sneak out for some late-night free running, what could possibly go wrong?
Well… suddenly sprouting wings and meeting a giant talking cat from the planet Furlean, maybe … or discovering that he is an alien from the planet Aviaan … oh, and finding out his dad’s a warrior King!
However, the planets of Furlean and Aviaan are at war. They have been at war for so long that they cannot even remember why anymore. Can Tunde fly to the rescue with his newfound wings? Will his best friends be able to help him? And will the two planets be able to live in harmony once more?
With the use of puppetry and videography (lighting and video design by Gillian Tan), Daniel Bailey’s direction transports the audience from the safety of Tunde’s home to an alien spaceship and takes us on a fun filled, if not important, planet saving journey.
Laura McEwen’s set and costume design helps to bring the alien characters to life, and this clearly helped to focus the younger audience members. Jess Murrain plays Juba, the talking alien cat, in search of ‘the flying boy’ and she engages well with the audience from the start, meowing her way in to their affections.
Adiel Boboye as Tunde, Millie Elkins-Green as Kylie and Samir Mahat as Dev have a great repour between them as the three young friends and the characters are easily relatable across the audience demographic. Mia Jerome as Ruth (Tunde’s ‘mum’) and Stephen Boyce as Aaven (Tunde’s dad) complete the cast and both have some nice, funny moments within the production.
It is continuously important to engage children in theatre performance and The Boy With Wings is a perfect example of how to do this. With upbeat music composed by Khalil Madovi that has everyone clapping their hands and humming the tunes on the way home, this is a great hour and a half of escapism for all ages.
This show was reviewed on the 21st August 2025 at Birmingham REP where it runs until the 30th August 2025. Tickets available here: The Boy With Wings | Birmingham Rep
Review written by Rachel Louise Martin
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Photo credit: Jake Bush
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