James McAvoy, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kit Harington & More Set for Danny Boyle's THE CHILDREN'S MONOLOGUES

Fifteen children growing up in a poor and remote part of rural South Africa have inspired Academy Award winner Danny Boyle to bring their stories to life in London as part of a hard hitting special theatre production starring James McAvoy, Academy Award Nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kit Harington, Josh Hartnett, Christopher Eccleston, Zawe Ashton and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

The Children's Monologues dramatise the testimonies of young children growing up in Rammulotsi, a small rural township in the Free State province of South Africa. Invited to write about a day they will never forget, the Children's Monologues retell the stories of young people expressing personal experiences in their own words, in their native Sesotho language. While some monologues capture moments of childish joy and wonder, many stories tell of desperate circumstances: what it is like to watch their parents die because of inadequate medical treatment, discover their mother has been gang raped and burned alive, and succumb to xenophobia they once despised.

Together they provide a deeply intimate and uncompromising insight into the lives of children facing extremely difficult realities.

As the children attempt to make sense of the stories they tell, the plays raise troubling and resonant questions: how can one find meaning after the murder of a loved one? Are some lives just not worth living? What's the difference between a mental illness and a spiritual encounter?

This moving sequence of monologues in aid of Boyle's arts charity Dramatic Need has been adapted for the stage by a who's who of writers - including Sir David Hare, Neil LaBute, James Graham, Laura Wade, Jack Thorne, Roy Williams OBE and Tanika Gupta MBE - working from first-hand accounts of children supported by the charity.

The Children's Monologues will be performed at the Royal Court Theatre on Sunday 25 October . It is expected to be one of the most dramatically powerful theatre experiences of 2015 - with Boyle fusing live theatre, hip hop music, classical piano from James Rhodes and documentary footage to create an immersive mashup that transports audiences to Rammulotsi in a dramatic one-night-only performance.

The 2015 Children's Monologues follow a production that played to a sold-out audience at the Old Vic five years ago in November, with Boyle - a founding trustee of Dramatic Need - directing a cast that included Sir Ben Kingsley, Eddie Redmayne, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rose Byrne, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Cox and Gemma Arterton.

Amber Sainsbury, founder of Dramatic Need, said:

"To share our lives, our fears and sorrows and loves, is a universal human impulse. Dramatic Need works through the creative arts to help vulnerable children in rural Southern Africa to tell their stories: to their families, communities and to each other. This creates room for accountability, acceptance and hopefully resolution of the issues these kids are facing on a daily basis. The Children's Monologues allows them to share these experiences with an international audience, so that we too can bear witness to what these kids have lived through. That some of the world's most celebrated actors, directors and dramatists are once again coming together to create a unique piece of work, is a testament to both the power of the arts to reach across cultures, and to the strength of these individual children's stories."

Kit Harington said:

"I'm honoured to have been asked to be part of 'The Children's Monologues'. To get to work with some of the country's most exciting writers and actors, whose work I have long admired, and with the brilliant Danny Boyle, is an amazing opportunity. To be able to tell the stories of impoverished Children from the other side of the world, which they themselves have penned, is a unique and important experience that I couldn't possibly turn down. Dramatic Need is an incredibly special cause and will produce a night of charity and theatre which should be daring, moving and an experience not to forget."

Proceeds from this year's event will fund the build of a new, movable arts centre for the township communities in which Dramatic Need works. The charity, which sends volunteer arts professionals to Rwanda and South Africa, gives children the chance to change their lives through dance, drama, art, music, film and photography. Through the arts the charity helps children to deal with trauma and conflict while also helping them to confront community-held 'taboo' subjects such as HIV awareness, ethnic violence and gender inequality.

The performance will take place on Sunday 25th October. Tickets can be purchased from Monday 14th September via www.dramaticneed.org/ or http://www.royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/childrens-monologues and are priced between £180 and £450, with a limited number of VIP packages price on application.

To post a comment, you must register and login.