Book & Lyrics by Riki Lindsey. Music by Mitchell Sloan. World Premiere. Presented by Berlage & Co. The Old Fitz. 15-23 May, 2026.
Alexander Berlage’s set and lighting for Sonder are a stunning ballet of metallic sails and swirling light, and thank god for them — they were almost enough to carry me through the accompanying 60 minutes of lifeless personal epiphanies. All that glitters etc…
Romeo (performed by writer Riki Lindsey) is a gay Māori man arriving at a moment of realisation. Looking back at the traumatic events of his life, he finds his way to a place of peace and a capacity to forgive those who wronged him as he comes into his own.
His journey is told in disconnected snippets — as though you’re skipping through a film you’ve lost interest in, dropping into scenes without context or connective tissue. The show seems to be reaching for poetic abstraction but instead comes across as disjointed.
This is not a traditional musical and shouldn’t be judged as one. It’s closer to a sequence of non-sequiturs with a soundtrack and occasional vocals. The music is well produced, but the lyrics are repetitively flat and the melodies sometimes sit awkwardly outside Lindsey’s vocal ability. Even accepted purely as mood music — emotional atmosphere with no narrative obligation — the songs outlast their welcome, getting in the way of scenes and emotions instead of amplifying them.
The result is a cold, lifeless art installation straining to tell a human story: a boy whose childhood was stolen from him, who struggled to connect. The staging works against the narrative’s needs. The sharp architecture discourages human proximity. The cool mechanical pulse of the electronic score, pleasing as it is on the ear, conveys no warmth. The show has the visual language of a polished music video but none of the human connection that live theatre uniquely offers.
It’s this lack of dramatic narrative or emotional connection that sinks Sonder before it even has a chance to swim. It’s hard to invest in a story that withholds story. It’s hard to care for a character who is cloaked in shadows and half-light who we never get a chance to really know.
Style over substance, then: the show mistakes atmosphere for meaning. The technical elements all over-deliver, but they can’t fill the void at the work’s centre. I always appreciate a bold swing, and I had high hopes for this show when it was announced, but it’s a clear miss.
Cultural Binge 