The Peasant Prince: Based on the book by Li Cunxin

This extraordinary play for young people is an adaptation of Li Cunxin's picture book The Peasant Prince - the true story of Mao's Last Dancer.

Adapted by Monkey Baa, Australia's leading theatre company for young audiences, The Peasant Prince has toured nationally, performing to tens of thousands of young people and their families throughout rural and regional Australia.

The production was awarded Most Outstanding Production for Children (the Glugs), Best Production for Children (Sydney Theatre Awards) and a Drover's Award for Best Touring Production (Australian Performing Arts and Producers Awards).

Li, a 10-year-old boy, is plucked from his village in rural China and sent to a ballet academy in the big city. He leaves everything and everyone he loves, including his family. Over years of gruelling training, he transforms from an impoverished peasant to a giant of the international dance scene. What does he find along the way?

The Peasant Prince is a remarkable true story of courage, resilience and unwavering hope.

'A poignant gem' Sydney Arts Guide

'Vital, exuberant, aspirational, and inspirational' Australian Stage

'Monkey Baa Theatre Company has created another wonderful work for children' Broadway World

EVA DI CESARE graduated from Victorian College of the Arts in 1989 and is one of the founding members of Monkey Baa Theatre Company. She directed Jackie French and Bruce Whatley's Diary of a Wombat, which won the Glug Award for Outstanding Presentation for Children. Cesare also wrote and directed Where the Streets Had a Name, based on the novel by Randa Abdel-Fattah. She has co-adapted Sydney Theatre Award winning play Li Cunxin's The Peasant Prince, Helpmann award winning plays Jackie French's Hitler's Daughter and Sonya Hartnett's Thursday's Child,  Tim Winton's The Bugalugs Bum Thief, Morris Gleitzman's Worry Warts, Gillian Rubinstein's The Fairy's Wings, Stephen Michael King's Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat, Susanne Gervay's I Am Jack, Elizabeth Fensham's Goodbye Jamie Boyd, Duncan Ball's Emily Eyefinger, and Jackie French and Bruce Whatley's Pete the Sheep and Josephine Wants to Dance. She also co-wrote and directed the 2013 Opera House show Babies Proms Series and Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (with Sandra Eldridge) for CDP Theatre Producers and Simon Tedeschi Pianist and Prankster for Monkey Baa. In 2017 Cesare was awarded a Sydney Theatre Award for 20 years of excellence and extraordinary service to the children and young people of Australia.