In Mary Poppins, Mr Banks reconnects with family life and his children through kite-flying. In the latest from The Wrong Crowd, kite-flying turns out to be a miraculous cure for grief. In a show that’s likeable and charming but so wafer thin that the slightest gust might blow it away, Charlotte Croft plays a girl who, after her mother’s death, is taken by her grandmother (Liz Crowther) to live in London.
Bound by blood and unbound by grief, their relationship is difficult. The show’s wordless nature becomes a metaphor for the pair’s inability to communicate what they both feel. But then the benevolent wind – played by Linden Walcott-Burton and Nicola Blackwell – takes a hand, and the girl rediscovers her kite and takes off over the skies of London with Gran in hot pursuit.
The show acknowledges debts to The Red Balloon and The Snowman, but it never reaches the heights of either. It’s a piece that has moments of pleasure but too often seems laboured. The design strives to be flexible and clever, particularly when it is used to depict the country’s entire transport network, but it is often over-busy. Even the puppetry lacks precision, and because the storytelling is weak and characters one-dimensional, little things start to grate: exactly how old is the girl supposed to be? Why is Gran quite so unsympathetic? If she brought the kite with her, surely the child is already acquainted with the pleasures of kite-flying?
This is a show with the potential to take flight. It might yet, with more work. In its current form a surface slickness can’t disguise a lack of substance and texture in the relationship and story: it flips from sorrow to elation without taking us on a real emotional journey. Perfectly pleasant, but never heartbreaking or joyous enough to lift you out of your seat.
• At Soho theatre, London, until 6 February. Box office: 020-7478 0100. Then touring until 9 April.
