WHAT USE IS A BOY WHO CAN’T SAY HIS OWN NAME?
CAPTAIN CHATTER AND THE STAMMERING STUDENT: ROSS WILLIS ON HIS PLAY WONDER BOY
Ross Willis is a playwright from Bristol. His plays include: Wolfie (Theatre503, London, 2019) and Wonder Boy (Bristol Old Vic, 2022). Wonder Boy won Best New Play at the Writers’ Guild Awards in 2023, Wolfie won Best New Play at both the Writers’ Guild Awards and the Off-West End Awards 2020, and also earned him a nomination for Best Writer at the 2019 Stage Debut Awards and Most Promising Playwright at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards.
A scared, stammering 12-year-old boy stands in a room full of strangers waiting to tell them his name. Sweat pours, his heartbeat accelerates and all the butterflies in the world enter his stomach.
Growing up is hard enough but growing up with a stammer is relentless. The self-loathing and shame that can come with stammering is all-consuming.
The constant worry about anything which involves talking is never-ending.
The persistent frustration when your own body and brain betray you. Never getting to feel truly present in life because you’re always on the lookout for words that might trap you and frantically trying to find substitute words as a replacement. It’s really hard to express the pain of not being able to say your own name. I hope my play Wonder Boy does that.
I wanted to write something that could only ever be a piece of theatre. I wanted it to be inherently theatrical. It felt really important to formally reflect the great inner operatic pain that comes from not feeling seen or being able to express oneself.
Wonder Boy tells the story of 12-yearold Sonny who, when cast in his school production of Hamlet, must learn to finally start speaking. He’s relentlessly stalked by his ex-imaginary best friend Captain Chatter who’s determined to stop him from speaking. While most imaginary best friends probably realise they’ll only ever have a job for a year or two, Captain Chatter has always seen it as a job for life. Hopefully, it’s mischievous and surprising and full of playfulness and pain and a great hope.