Pilot Theatre has today announced the casting for the world premiere of S. Shakthidharan’s adaptation of The Bone Sparrow, Zana Fraillon’s award winning moving novel about a Rohingya refugee boy who has spent his entire life living in a detention centre in Australia.
The Bone Sparrow cast will feature Yaamin Chowdhury (Let Kilburn Shake, Kiln Theatre and soon to be seen in Apple TV’s The Essex Serpent alongside Tom Hiddleston and Claire Danes and Sky’s upcoming action-drama Extinction) as Subhi; Mary Roubos (Separate Doors, Chichester Festival Theatre and The Tempest, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre) as Jimmie.
Elmi Rashid Elmi (Dune, Warner Brothers and soon to be seen in The Swimmers by Jack Thorne and onstage in the award-winning Barber Shop Chronicles, Fuel and National Theatre) as Eli; Jum Faruq (Five Little Christmas Monkeys, Baby Panda in association with Park Theatre) as Duck; Kiran. L Dadlani (Ackley Bridge, Channel 4; Coronation Street and Cold Feet, ITV) as Maa; Siobhan Athwal (Wasted, Southwark Playhouse; Bend it Like Beckham, Phoenix Theatre and Viva Forever, Piccadilly Theatre) as Queenie; Devesh Kishore (Guards at The Taj ,Theatre by the Lake and Gangsta Granny, Birmingham Stage) as Harvey/ Ba/ Nasir and Mackenzie Scott (Michael Morpurgo’s King’s Arthur, Edinburgh Fringe Festival) as Beaver.
The Bone Sparrow tells the story of Subhi, a refugee, born in an Australian permanent detention centre after his mother fled the violence of a distant homeland, life behind the fences is all he has ever known. But as he grows, his imagination gets bigger too, until it is bursting at the limits of his world.
One night, Jimmie, a scruffy, impatient girl appears from the other side of the wires, and brings a notebook written by the mother she lost. Unable to read it, she relies on Subhi to unravel her own family’s mysterious and moving history.
Subhi and Jimmie might both find a way to freedom, as their tales unfold. But not until each of them has been braver than ever before.
The Bone Sparrow will be the third co-production between Pilot Theatre, Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, Mercury Theatre Colchester, and York Theatre Royal who in 2018 formed a new partnership to develop theatre for younger audiences. Whilst out on tour several of the connected education projects with the consortium partners will be working with local sanctuary-seeker and migrant communities.
The production has also been developed in association with the Australian Theatre for Young People and with the support of Bradford’s SBC Theatre, a group of creative professionals and artists who are committed to making work with, about and for those seeking sanctuary in the UK and internationally.
Directed by Pilot Theatre’s Artistic Director Esther Richardson, The Bone Sparrow will open at York Theatre Royal from 25 February -5 March 2022 and will then tour to Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, Derby Theatre, Mercury Theatre Colchester, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, and Theatre Peckham.
For more information on The Bone Sparrow visit https://www.pilot-theatre.com/present-work/the-bone-sparrow
