Chris Goode's latest solo show is a simple, unaffected piece of storytelling with some sparky animation and a brilliant soundtrack that transcends its one-man show format and the over-familiar coming-of-age tales of teenage angst. Fourteen-year-old Shirley is weighed down by the burden of having a girl's name, his unrequited love for the school cross-country captain, and an unacknowledged grief. But when Wound Man moves into his suburban cul-de-sac, Shirley's quiet, desperate life takes a turn for the better.
The original Wound Man illustrations appeared in medieval surgical textbooks depicting the injuries that could be sustained in battle. Goode's latter-day Wound Man, clanking about with knives, spears and arrows sticking out of him and wearing a silver posing pouch, calls himself a "freelance social interventionist". That's a superhero to you and me, and soon Shirley is offering his services as a teenage sidekick. But Wound Man's special gift is something much more precious than simply preventing catastrophes. He looks at how people feel inside when they are suffering, and in doing so he makes them braver.
There is something so unguarded, almost childlike, about this show that you can't help but fall in love with it.
The icing on the cake is Janet Bird's clever design and Adam Smith's animation, which takes you back to childhood dreams of flying.
Goode's script mixes the suburban and the surreal without blinking, and the piece above all reminds us that the stars may one day shine again if we can just keep going, putting one foot in front of the other for as long as it takes.
• At Contact, Manchester (0870 066 6845), from Monday until Saturday. Then touring.
