Fly More Than You Fall
28 October 2024
Southwark Playhouse Elephant
2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Fly More Than You Fall, the new musical currently running at the Southwark Playhouse Elephant until 23 November, is an ambitious show trying to tackle grief and mental health wrapped up in an upbeat musical.
The story revolves around Malia, an aspiring writer and unshakably positive teenager, who’s life is thrown into turmoil when her mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. While Malia tries to navigate friendships, first love, and devastating grief, she finds refuge in her writing.
The plot of Malia’s novel about Willow, a bird with broken wings who seeks to learn how to fly, mirrors the happenings in her life quite closely, but ultimately this meshing of two stories doesn’t serve the musical well, muddling and confusing things rather than enhancing the story. Within a few minutes of the show starting, the audience are faced with the mother’s terminal diagnosis, before ever having a chance to build up an emotional connection to either Malia or her mother. Between the toxicly positive attitude from Malia, brightly singing about how amazing and beautiful life is, and the quick revelation of the devastating health prognosis, there really isn’t any consideration given for viewers to connect and empathise with the characters. This is quickly followed with the parents punishing 15 year old Malia for still wanting to see friends and have a life despite her mother quickly deteriorating, eradicating the little sympathy audiences may have tried to build up for the family. A constantly shouting father and emotionally manipulative mother make it difficult for the teenager to be allowed to have a voice or personality.
While the soundtrack is tremendously upbeat and showcases incredible voice talent, the music is turned up too loud and washes out many of the lyrics, while the loose and somewhat silly choreographies don’t help things along either. The second story of Willow the bird, contained within Malia’s imagination, feels too juvenile and silly for this setting, not adding emotional depth to what could be a beautiful show about grief, rather muddying the waters with a bizarre narrative of a bird with broken wings climbing up a mountain to learn to fly. Even some of the other teenagers in the narrative mention how childish the story seems, so this might have been a deliberate choice, but one that doesn’t aid the musical at all. Having a teenager struggling with facing their mother’s imminent demise sing the same song as a bird who doesn’t want to camp on a mountain side any more just seems like a strange choice, dulling the emotions conveyed and slipping into the silly and awkward instead of the profound.
Unfortunately the tremendous talent involved in this production cannot save a script that feels like the fever dream of a child who believes themselves to know what profundity means.
