The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Based on the best-selling book, this musical adaptation follows the true story of 13-year-old Malawian, William Kamkwamba.

When not helping his dad tend to their crops in the fields, William’s time is spent repairing radios to bring in a little pocket money and playing around in the scrapyard. He is just starting secondary school, but without electricity, and with no money for batteries or kerosene, it's too dark for him to study by the time he has finished his daily duties in the fields.

The rains come late and they come devastatingly heavy, washing away an entire year's crop before disappearing entirely for months on end. William knows there will be precious little food in the year ahead, and certainly no money to pay his school fees as secondary education does not come free in Malawi.

William is eventually forced to drop out of school, however, in an attempt to keep up with his studies, he starts sneaking into the school library. And, it is here that he discovers an old textbook with a picture of a long row of gigantic wind turbines on its cover. He imagines building his own turbine, generating enough electricity to pump water from deep underground and irrigate the fields around his home. So whilst a starving community desperately searches for food, William scavenges the scrapyard opposite the school for discarded machine parts with which to build his windmill.

Against the backdrop of famine spreading across the land, the lack of government support, and death, William persists with his idea and builds a small prototype demonstrating to the doubters his plan could actually work.

With his father donating his own bicycle to his cause, his only mode of transportation, so that it can be chopped up and used for parts, William is finally able to complete his project. People from all over the region gather to watch as he climbs the tall tower and pulls out the pin that holds the blades in place. The sails start to turn, slowly at first, then faster and faster until their motion rocks the tower as William clings to it, holding on for dear life. First, electric light fills the darkness, then precious water spills over the land, healing its dry cracked scars and, in time, turning it fertile and green once more.

William lifts his village out of famine, breaking the cycle of reliance upon the rains and, in doing so, enabling his family to look forward beyond the end of each day and beyond even the next harvest, towards an educated and empowered future.

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