The Vancouver International Children’s Festival will showcase British poet and performer Toby Thompson’s celebrated one-man show I Wish I Was a Mountain from May 26 to June 1 at Performance Works on Granville Island.
Blending poetry, theatre, and jazz influences, Thompson’s performance reimagines Hermann Hesse’s 1916 fairy tale Faldum through a deeply rhythmic and musical lens. The show has been performed over 100 times worldwide and marks Thompson’s first Vancouver appearance.
“In Canada, there’s a particular awareness or sensibility around the land,” Thompson said during a recent Zoom interview. “Everything feels a bit more embodied and grounded. I can feel it in the theatre — the sense of this guy wishing he was a mountain and becoming a mountain, and the landscape shifting. There’s an extra frisson of appreciation or imagination that comes.”
Thompson, a former Glastonbury Poetry Slam champion, has built a distinguished career writing and performing poetry with a strong musical underpinning. His past commissions include work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Geographical Society, and London’s National Portrait Gallery. Despite new ventures like his adaptation of The Little Prince debuting last year, I Wish I Was a Mountain remains a personal favourite.
“There’s more of me in it — I’m me, telling the story,” Thompson explained. “I’m an only child and spent much of my childhood listening to audiobooks and music. The rhythms of language are in my bones.”
Music plays a central role in the show’s creative process. Thompson cites jazz legends such as Nina Simone, Bill Evans, and Horace Silver as integral influences, and incorporates vinyl records and piano riffs into the live performance to create a multisensory experience.
“I always write to music because that’s where the writing finds so much of its rhythm,” he said. “I search for pieces of music that I could listen to for hundreds of hours without growing tired — they become a muse.”
The Vancouver International Children’s Festival, now in its 48th year, features a diverse program of theatre, music, dance, circus arts, puppetry, and storytelling. This year’s lineup includes local artists like Kym Gouchie and Cause & Effect Circus alongside international acts such as Seven Circles and Kalabanté Productions.
Thompson emphasizes that his work engages both children and adults without compromising complexity. “Kids can take quite a lot of complexity,” he said. “There’s something about not dumbing down and trusting that if you enjoy something, kids can enjoy it for their own reasons.”
His show won the Showcase Victor Award at the 2020 IPAY Festival in Philadelphia and toured China extensively in 2022. Despite his introverted nature, Thompson embraces the connection his performances foster with audiences.
“When you’ve spent all that solitary time weighing every syllable, it’s deeply satisfying to share that and feel it resonating in other people’s minds and bodies,” he reflected. “There’s a kind of completeness to the circle that happens.”
I Wish I Was a Mountain runs through June 1 at Performance Works as part of the Vancouver International Children’s Festival.
