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...