Following an intensive search, the 23 boys have been announced who will populate the British dancemaker’s savage island.

Following an extensive workshop and audition process, 23 boys from across Victoria have been chosen to form the Young Ensemble of Sir Matthew Bourne’s stage adaption of Lord of the Flies, which comes to Arts Centre Melbourne in April.

The young performers will join a cast of professional dancers from the UK and Australia in an adaption of William Golding’s classic novel about a group of boys stranded on a desert island. Bourne’s production has already toured the UK, featuring local performers everywhere it has been presented and frequently changing lives in the process.

The production began as a project to create a full-scale show designed to introduce young men and boys to dance and theatre, funded by the UK’s Scottish Arts Council. For Bourne, Golding’s novel was an obvious choice, with its potent themes of violence, gangs and shifting allegiances.

“The idea to do Lord of the Flies was mine,” Bourne told Limelight’s Deputy Editor Jo Litson, for a feature in the Magazine’s March issue. “It just seemed so perfect, because they had stipulated that it was to be boys only, and they had stipulated that they wanted it to be a mixture of professional dancers from my company and these young boys.”

The boys in the Melbourne performances were selected primarily through a state-wide community outreach programme. The Ensemble includes boys and young men with varying levels of dance experience – including some with none at all. It also includes cast members from Singapore, Afghanistan and the United States.

The Young Ensemble range in age from 10 years old to 25 – the average age is 14 years and seven months – and they come from all across Victoria, including Leongatha, Shepparton, Swan Hill, Mildura, Beaconsfield and Cranbourne as well as metropolitan suburbs such as Blackburn, Box Hill, South Yarra, Brunswick West, Preston, Reservoir, Hoppers Crossing, Edithvale, Dandenong North, Oakleigh, Hampton Park, Hampton, Mentone and Bentleigh East.

For many in the Young Ensemble, this could be the start of a larger journey into the world of dance. “It changes their lives in many ways,” said Bourne. “We’re a few years down the track with it in the UK and some of the boys who have been in Lord of the Flies are in their third year of training now and about to graduate, which is incredible.”

Sir Matthew Bourne’s Lord of the Flies is at Arts Centre Melbourne April 5 – 9

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