A new musical, telling the remarkable true story of how a young boy built a windmill to save an African village from starvation, premieres at the RSC next month. Actor Alistair Nwachukwu describes The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind as an inspiring testament to resilience and hope - one which he feels certain will make a big impact on its audience...

As extraordinary true-life stories go, the tale of William Kamkwamba takes some beating. Born to a family of farmers in the village of Wimbe in Malawi, he single-handedly saved his community from starvation by building a windmill to power the village’s broken water pump. The budding inventor used scrap materials from the local junkyard and parts from the family bicycle - the only one in the village, and their only real asset - which he convinced his relatives he needed to dismantle. And all at the age of 13.

“It’s crazy; unbelievable,” says actor Alistair Nwachukwu, who will portray William in a new stage adaptation of the story at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. “When I was 13 I was playing PlayStation and messing around - he’s creating a windmill!”

Based on Kamkwamba’s bestselling memoir and a movie adaptation written and directed by well-known actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind will be the RSC’s first musical since Daniel Evans and Tamara Harvey took over as co-artistic directors. The brand-new production - described by the duo as ‘a landmark moment’ - will be directed by Lynette Linton, former artistic director of the Bush Theatre, with book & lyrics by Richy Hughes and music & lyrics by Tim Sutton. Ejiofor serves as creative associate, and will be executive producer when the show subsequently transfers to the West End.

The combination of talent involved was a huge draw for Alistair, a British actor born to Nigerian parents - coincidentally, he’s from the same tribe as Ejiofor - although he admits he wasn’t sure he was right for the part when it was first offered to him: “I’d been doing workshops with Lynette for two years, so I knew the story and knew what it was going to be like, but I never expected to play the main role. I told Lynette - who’s an amazing director - that I’d never sung before, but she and [producer] Kenny Wax said they wanted me for the part.”

Playing William will be a big change from his most recent role as Leo in the sold-out production of The Line Of Beauty at London’s Almeida Theatre, but the former LAMDA student (he graduated in 2021) has been preparing for months. As well as immersing himself in Malawian culture, he’s been having singing lessons to enable his tenor voice to hit the high notes of the numbers he’ll have to perform.

“All my songs are Michael Jackson-high - like, really high,” he laughs, admitting that playing a 13-year-old (his typical age range is 25 to 35) presents another big challenge: “I’ve got a movement coach who’s helping me to find the physicality of a younger man, and a dialect coach to help me get the voice of a younger person. It’s slowly all coming together.”

Alistair has had plenty of inspiration along the way. Members of the show’s creative team went to Malawi to see William and his family at their home, and Alistair got to meet the man he would play when he visited the cast in the UK.

“William came to the workshops and spoke to us about what it was like for him and his sisters and what inspired him. It was really nice to speak to him and have him here in the flesh and understand his psyche and what he was going through at the time.”

It turns out the actor is no stranger to overcoming adversity himself. As a youngster he was all set to become a professional footballer with Millwall FC until a broken femur and dislocated knee put paid to his career before it had even begun.

“That was game over,” he says matter-of-factly. “My mum was like ‘Now you’ve got to do something serious with your life.’ I went to university to study marketing but dropped out after two years and stumbled into acting -  and now I’m the lead at the RSC! What a journey...”

But if he sounds relatively laidback about the way things have transpired, he admits getting the lead role at such a prestigious venue - and at a relatively young age - is very much a dream come true.

“I can’t describe how much it means to me. When I was at drama school, I never thought this would happen - ever. I was at LAMDA from nine till nine every day, and some days it was so hard and I thought ‘What am I doing?’ I was the oldest in my year, and my family don’t really come from much, so five years on, to be the lead at the RSC is unbelievable. When Lynette told me, I was crying.”

A bit like getting to Wembley as a footballer?

“Yeah, exactly!”

And despite being hugely different professions - he doubts many of his former teammates are theatre lovers - there are similarities in that both require discipline, training and total dedication.

“To become a great footballer, you have to be working on your craft every single day - and it’s the same for acting. Before I went to drama school, I didn’t know you had to work with your voice, on your movement, on your mind.

“There’s a huge parallel between them both. It’s working on your craft to become the best version of yourself so that you’re then able to transform into these different characters, to play William, or Hamlet or Othello.”

It’s interesting that he cites a couple of iconic Shakespearean roles - an eye on the future perhaps? - but there’s a sense that he thinks The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind has the potential to impact audiences every bit as much as the Bard’s work. And, he suggests, as much as the book and the movie were powerful, the musical version has the potential to resonate even more: “Music can sometimes express things that words can’t, and the stage version brings a different kind of immediacy - it puts the audience right there in the room with the characters.

“I think the musical element will capture the drought, the tension with the family, the soaring hope when the windmill is finally built. There are going to be some really powerful moments that will really touch the audience. I guarantee you will be moved.”

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind shows at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, from Tuesday 10 February to Saturday 28 March

By Steve Adams