Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle will direct a star-studded line-up of actors on stage at the Old Vic this Sunday 14 November for a one-off charity performance to raise funds to support children in rural South Africa.
Oscar-winning actor Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, Schindler’s List) will lead a cast of actors in reading a series of monologues adapted from the personal stories of South African children living in abysmal conditions.
Entitled The Children’s Monologues, these powerful true stories of violence and rape, hope and rare happiness, have been adapted for the stage by Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined) and acclaimed playwrights Bola Agbaje, Polly Stenham, Dennis Kelly and Kwame Kwei-Armah. Performed in English, the 12 monologues include original recordings of the children reading their stories in their native tongues, Sesotho and Tswana.
Kingsley is joined on the Old Vic stage by acclaimed stage and screen actors Samuel West, Gemma Arterton, Lucian Msamati, Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Hattie Morahan, Charlie Cox, Nathan Stewart Jarrett, Nonso Anozie, Jenny Jules, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Wunmi Mosaku and Kerry Fox.
The one-off performance is organised by Dramatic Need, an arts charity which uses dance, drama and other art forms to help disadvantaged children in Rwanda and South Africa deal with trauma and confront taboo subjects such as AIDS and ethnic violence.
Funds raised from the The Children’s Monologues will help provide an independent arts and drama centre for school children in rural South Africa.
Boyle, a patron of Dramatic Need, is the director of films Slumdog Millionaire – for which he won an Oscar – Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later and 127 Hours. Also an acclaimed stage director, he will make his National Theatre debut with a new production of Frankenstein early next year.
Tickets for The Children’s Monologues cost £25 and can be purchased by calling 0800 411 8881.
CB