Charlie Ashanti lives in a future where phones are powered by the sun, cars are banned and companies are more powerful than countries. Charlie is a perfectly normal boy, except for one thing: he can speak to cats.

When his parents are kidnapped, he sets off on a rescue mission – with a little help from a floating circus and its pride of performing lions.

Based on Zizou Corder's bestselling novels, Marcelo Dos Santos's adaptation fuses storytelling and circus in a gripping tale that provides great opportunities for amateur and school groups looking to perform a magical adventure.

Lionboy was commissioned and first produced by award-winning theatre company Complicite in 2013, and was revived in 2014 for an international tour.

'A beautiful, stylistic and intelligent adaptation'

'It twinkles with a sense of magical possibility… liveliness, invention and effortless appeal'

'A wonderfully imaginative adventure'

'A unique, bold piece of theatre that has a great deal to say about humanity. Beyond the fantastical nature of the show lie timely and pertinent themes... it is heartwarming and reassuring to see young actors afforded such a platform'

Zizou Corder is the pen name of Louisa Young and her daughter Isabel Adomakoh Young, who have been writing together since Isabel was seven, including the critically acclaimed Lionboy trilogy (Lionboy, Lionboy: The Chase and Lionboy: The Truth), Lee Raven, Boy Thief and Halo. Marcelo Dos Santos is an award-winning playwright and scriptwriter. His plays include: Backstairs Billy (West End, 2023); Feeling Afraid As If Something Terrible Is Going To Happen (Summerhall, Edinburgh, 2022 and Bush Theatre, London, 2023); New Labour (RADA, 2014, directed by Richard Wilson); Lionboy adapted from the novels by Zizou Corder (Complicite, 2013 and 2014); Lovers Walk (Southwark Playhouse); and Cheer Up, This is Only the Beginning (Liverpool Playhouse). He was named Most Promising Playwright at the 2024 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards for Backstairs Billy.