Fly More Than You Fall – Southwark Playhouse Elephant

Just opened at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant, ‘Fly More Than You Fall’ is a new musical by Eric Holmes (Book/Lyrics) and Nat Zegree (Music/Lyrics).  We meet Malia (Robyn Rose-Li) a 15-year-old writer with big dreams of going to camp this summer and finishing her first book about a bird, Willow (Maddison Bulleyment) who will finally reach the top of the mountain despite her broken wings. Malia’s parents warn her that life isn’t always as positive as she experiences it right now and surely enough, her mother Jennifer (Keala Settle) is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer that summer and rather than spending it at camp, Malia must stay home and spend her last moments with her mum.

Death is universal and everyone in the audience has some relation to it, one way or another. It is important to touch upon grief and death in theatre and particularly interesting to frame it for young audiences, Malia’s reactions switch from devastation, to rage, to selfishness as she doubles up in dealing with puberty and the death of a parent. She is having a terrible time of it. Rose-Li does an incredible job of tackling those feelings on stage and really lays her heart out for us through her performance, but it feels shame that the text often didn’t step up to her performance. The message to begin with felt simple – parents cushioning their child for their inevitable fall as they experience their first moment of true ‘negativity’. Malia is infused with toxic positivity, which is shown through the simple set design, pastel paper flurrying around spreading out like wings. Along with the message, the set choices felt slightly childish and lacking in depth which made me question perhaps this is a show aimed more for a younger audience. But how young? Malia is incredibly youthful for 15 and her friends at school quite 2D in the way they’re written, not to say not well acted as this cast truly stepped up with fill every character with life.

The message gets lost as the story moves onwards, I’m not sure if it was a message to embrace negativity or to live everyday like it’s your last or whether it’s always better to climb mountains if you have someone with you. Ironically, whilst following Malia’s circumstances we also follow her battle with finishing her book. Willow the bird, desperate to climb a mountain despite her broken wings. Slightly confusing costume as we are confronted with a person in a cap and climbing gear rather than anything resembling a bird. Nevertheless, Bulleyment is absolutely OUTSTANDING in their performance- true desperate need to better themselves and to prove everybody wrong, with a vocal ability that is out of this world. Throughout the piece, the bird will join in to symbolise Malia’s conflicting feelings about the death of her mother, changing the end to the story several times and all resulting to be more confusing than the last. Before her mother dies she explained to Malia about the ‘Hero Story’ which ultimately Malia remembers and finally finishes her story ending generically with the bird having working wings all along.

There’s nothing to say that this isn’t a sweet message, but I just question who this message is aimed at, is it the teen generation or do we look at an even younger audience for this quite sweet and simple message. Again, this circles back to my confusion at what the final, overall message of the piece is- I have come away satisfied at seeing an incredible cast but very lost at what I can pick away from the story that I haven’t already seen many times before.

Although my own personal qualms with the story, I would like to reiterate the incredible talent of this cast. They truly make the trip so worth it, the energy on stage with each other is beautifully held and supported – I’m blown away by the vocal ability. A real highlight of the night is best friend, Caleb (Max Gill) whose choices are interesting and genuinely hilarious, their scenes were always a joy to watch.

Reviewer: Amelia Rose

Reviewed: 23rd October 2024

North West End UK Rating: