RESULTS

It's winter 1944 and the Second World War is entering its most crucial stage. A few months ago Ali Banana was apprenticed to a whip-wielding blacksmith in his rural hometown; now he's behind enemy lines, trekking through the Burmese jungle, a private in Thunder Brigade. He is 14-years-old. Led by the scarred, charismatic Sergeant Damisa, Thunder Brigade has been given orders to go behind enemy lines and wreak havoc. But the jungle is a treacherous place, riddled with Japanese snipers, infection and disease. As torrential rains turn the landscape into a muddy death trap, the losses mount up, Ali's sanity falters and troubling questions arise. Who, for instance, is Kingi Jogi? What does his empire stand for? And what does it all mean for Banana, the men of Thunder Brigade and for their inspirational general? Burma Boy is a story of the adventure of war and the terrible consequences of that adventure.

In 1688 the British writer and playwright Aphra Behn published her 'true history' called Oroonoko, or the Royal Slave. It tells the story of an African prince, tricked into slavery and transported to the British colony of Surinam in South America. Biyi Bandele has written a witty, thought-provoking play that is at once a celebration of Aphra Behn's humanist vision, a bold and irreverent re-interpretation of the three hundred year-old classic and a tragic love story that resounds with passion.