Indian Boy

A play about the discovery of a 'wild child', examining our mythic struggles with the wilderness inside ourselves.

A 'wild child' is found in the last clump of woodland left on a building development. The builder, Peter, wants him out of the way. The psychologist, Julius, wants to protect him. His wife, June, wants to understand him and all the time something even wilder seems intent on escaping from the forest.

Rona Munro's play The Indian Boy was written for the Royal Shakespeare Company and was inspired by the 'little changeling boy' who is the source of Oberon and Titania's quarrel in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

It was first performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company at The Cube, Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2006.

Rona Munro is a writer who has written extensively for stage, radio, film and television. Her plays include: James V: Katherine (Raw Material and Capital Theatres tour, 2024); Mary (Hampstead Theatre, 2022); James IV: Queen of the Fight (National Theatre of Scotland, 2022); a stage adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (UK tour, 2019); a stage adaptation of Louis de Bernières' novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin (UK tour & West End, 2019); Scuttlers (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2015); The James Plays trilogy (National Theatre of Scotland, the Edinburgh International Festival and the National Theatre of Great Britain, 2014); Donny's Brain (Hampstead Theatre, 2012); Pandas (Traverse, 2011); Little Eagles (Royal Shakespeare Company, 2011); The Last Witch (Traverse Theatre & Edinburgh International Festival, 2009); Long Time Dead (Paines Plough & Drum Theatre Plymouth, 2006); The Indian Boy (RSC, 2006); Iron (Traverse Theatre, 2002; Royal Court, London, 2003); The Maiden Stone (Hampstead Theatre, 1995); and Bold Girls (7:84 and Hampstead Theatre, 1990). She is the co-founder, with actress Fiona Knowles, of Scotland’s oldest continuously performing, small-scale touring theatre company, The Msfits. Their one-woman shows have toured every year since 1986. Film and television work includes the Ken Loach film Ladybird Ladybird, Aimee and Jaguar and television dramas Rehab (directed by Antonia Bird) and BAFTA-nominated Bumping the Odds for the BBC. She has also written many other single plays for television and contributed to series including Casualty and Dr Who. Most recently, she wrote the screenplay for Oranges and Sunshine, directed by Jim Loach and starring Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving. She has contributed several radio plays to the Stanley Baxter Playhouse series on BBC Radio 4.