Everyone should come and see Ostrich Boys becasue whilst it is dark and sometimes tragic, it is ultimately warm, funny and very thought provoking!

If you love to laugh out loud whilst still gripped by a fantastic and moving story, Ostrich Boys is the perfect play for you. Everyone should find something special in this play, whether it's something that they find funny, or some of its more poignant moments. Carl Miller's excellent adaptation may even provide surprises for those who are familiar with Keith Gray's fantastic novel about friendship, loss and the trials of growing up.

Please could you tell me approx what time the performance of Ostrich Boys on Friday 15 July finishes? We need to make travel arrangements. Thanks.

i cant wait to go and watch this, ive read the book and it seems brilliant... im really looking forward to watchin it in the theatre

Hi Mike. The performance lasts an hour.

Just got back from opening night.Enjoyed the performance immensley.Dark,funny,tragic and moving captured by some powerful performances from a talented young cast.
Great stuff!!

Hey there

I am a secondary school teacher at Priory City of Lincoln Academy and with two colleagues brought 40 Y8 students to the opening show of Ostrich Boys last night (Weds 13th July). I want to say a huge thank you to the theatre staff for making the whole process of getting 13 year old students into seats close to staff very straightforward (not the easiest job after over 2 hours on the coach!), but more than that, I really want to tell you how incredible the play was. I adore the novel, as do the students, but as a teacher could really see how clever the adaptation was from page to stage. Genius. I cried right at the start with the backdrop of the death of Ross combined with the dancers/bike (!) on stage - very, very clever in terms of looking at stagecraft. I cried throughout with the omnipresent Ross representing what the dead boy had been thinking and feeling, and I cried at the end when he reached out to touch Blake. It was simply beautiful and the actors were just amazing.
With hindsight, I think more mature students than Y8 could appreciate the re-telling of the story in a different format but our younger students really enjoyed the performance and were able to make links between the novel and the play and how it was re-jigged for the purposes of stage/space and time. This makes me wonder just how far Ostrich Boys and this performance of it could be stretched. It has inspired me as a teacher when considering how to deliver it as a unit of work and I really just want to study this wonderful novel and take all students to see that performance for the sake of enjoying literature and drama brought together by young people. I think with the quality of the drama we saw last night and the impact it had on the students (there were a lot of tears from the girls and a couple of the boys were looking 'tired'...) this show should run nationally. We travelled from Lincoln to Birmingham for a short performance at the end of a long day and it was worth every second.
I would like to email the cast members to congratulate them on behalf of our students and I know some of the students would like to do the same. Is it possible for that to be arranged? Had I known it would be so good I would have advised on a standing ovation for the performance. Our students cheered and clapped but I feel the actors were tremendous and if you could pass on our thoughts and congratulations I would be really grateful. It is very easy to overlook what happens in between the school drama studio right the way through to the West End - last night's show was inspirational, devastatingly moving and somehow hilarious.
Thank you so much for having us; it was much appreciated by all.

Sian Marshall

P.S - Provide tissues next time!

What lovely feedback! Thanks for taking the time to write to us, I'll pass it on to the company.

Just wanted to say a big thank you on behalf of all the cast to Sian Marshall for the fantastic feedback, We feel honoured that the play has inspired you and your students and knowing that people had tears in their eyes lets us know we did a good job! Opening night was the most nerve racking as we had the writer of the book Keith Gray and Carl Miller who wrote the script, it was also press night so we knew we had to live up to the expectations of the book and to make it our own. It also gave us all a sigh of relief when we knew we had a good audience and to get the feedback and reviews that we have got makes us proud to be a part of the whole experience. We are glad you all enjoyed it and glad that it was worth the journey!

From the cast of Ostrich Boys.

Thank you for all the wonderful feedback regarding the play, it's good to know that our audiences have enjoyed watching it just as much as we have enjoyed performing it. It's been an amazing experience, being part of such a fantastic play. I'd like to take the opportunity to thank the team that often gets less recognition from audiences, but has been instrumental in the brilliant production of the play - Carl Miller's great adaptation of Keith Gray's novel would be nothing without the backstage team, who have all worked fantastically and professionally.

A particular 'thank you!' must go, of course, to director Hannah Phillips for pushing us, the cast, to be the best we can be. I think I speak on behalf of all of the cast when I say that she has done a frankly spectacular job.

We at the Young REP hope to bring you great pieces of theatre for years to come, and I hope that those of you who enjoyed 'Ostrich Boys' will return to Birmingham over the next few years to watch our other productions, which we hope will be even better.

Many thanks - Thomas Chiverton, Ross

What a performance! I went expecting to see youth actors that laugh throughout the production, but I was TOTALLY wrong! The three main actors were GLORIOUS and they deserve the praise, they carried the story (which I was not aware of before I watched the perfomance). I would recommend it to everyone!!!