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The Adventures of Wound man and Shirley - A review by Katherine Danaher

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The Adventures of Wound Man and Shirley is the kind of story telling in which you
become completely mesmerized.

The story is about a teenage boy called Shirley and his new neighbour Wound Man.
Wound Man appears to be a normal man but with every injury known to man simply
on him, untreated. Wound Man is a kind of superhero with the power to help people
understand their feelings. He has the power to “look how you feel”. When Shirley
becomes his sidekick you watch the story unfold as Shirley talks about his love for
another boy and physical love for his brother who had passed away. Wound Man
seems to act as reassurance for Shirley in the way that Shirley knows what he must
do but needs Wound Man there to say its all ok and show him the way.

This one man show was so cleverly written, performed and told to an extent words
cannot describe. Chris Goode has managed to do what most writers/performers only
wish they could do… captivate their audience so that they can almost control what
their audience feels. He made me want to laugh, he made me want to cry; the whole
thing was so moving and heart warming.

It is like when you read a book so good you just can’t put it down, when you read the
words of different characters in different voices. The subject is so unusual you know
most definitely you could never tell anyone about it and have them understand it
unless they read it themselves. It was like that… your own little secret - yet you were
able to share the experience and emotions with every other person in the Salisbury
Playhouse studio. Such detail was included, describing every single character but in
such a subtle way you didn’t need to really think as the image was simply painted
before you.

I would highly recommend this show to anyone prepared to let themselves become
completely absorbed in the story.

Katherine Danaher,

Young Critic.

Date Posted: Wednesday 6 June 12