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Doing it for the kids

Sunday 24th July '05
www.kylie.co.uk

Despite her own personal battle, Kylie has this week taken time to help a group of Sri Lankan orphans to fulfill their dreams of performing at this year's Edinburgh Festival, in a show Kylie has dubbed "a magical story full of hope and joy". Using her celebrity status for good yet again, she this time helped convince the British High Commission no less in pushing through the children's visas after difficulties with red tape.

Kylie helps the orphans act out tsunami tragedy

Scotland on Sunday, 24 Jul 2005

She is one of the world's most popular entertainers in the midst of fighting a battle against breast cancer. They are a group of tsunami orphans who triumphed over despair but fell foul of visa regulations on their way to the Edinburgh Festival.

Despite her health problems, Australian superstar Kylie Minogue has taken the time to help the Sri Lankan child actors to achieve their dream of performing at the world's biggest arts extravaganza.

Support from the 37-year-old singer has helped persuade UK immigration authorities to grant visas to the performers in time for the opening show of their play next week.

They are all orphans who lost their families when huge waves swamped their coastal villages during the Boxing Day tsunami in the Indian Ocean. But their chance to tell their story of survival to the world was threatened because their Sri Lankan passports were swept away amid the natural disaster.

A letter from Minogue helped persuade the British High Commission to let the actors into Britain. She has also agreed to contribute thousands of pounds towards the cost of bringing the children to Edinburgh in the hope that other sponsors will also come forward.

The play, Children of the Sea, was devised by Toby Gough, a festival veteran, and will have a month-long run at the city's Royal Botanic Garden.

Gough said he wrote to Minogue because of her huge popularity in Sri Lanka.

"I couldn't believe it when I got a reply giving her support for the whole project to be brought to the Edinburgh Festival. I sent it to the British High Commission which was considering the visa applications along with other supporting letters and I am sure it helped swing things our way.

"Then when she agreed to actually help us to meet the cost of taking the kids to Edinburgh, that was wonderful. The play is all about human survival so perhaps that struck a chord with what she is going through.

"When you think what she has on her mind at the moment, it is absolutely fantastic that she has taken the time to organise some support for us. The children have all written to her to say thank you."

Minogue, an Australian former soap star, was diagnosed with breast cancer in May, just after starting a world tour. She has undergone at least two operations and is currently in Paris undergoing fertility treatment in the hope that chemotherapy does not leave her unable to have children.

The Children of the Sea is based on Shakespeare's play, Pericles, about a fisherman who thinks he has lost his family to the sea only for them to be reunited years later.

Gough, the director, has adapted the theme of the play to cover the striking of the tsunami, which devastated the east coast of Sri Lanka killing 31,000, making 500,000 homeless and leaving thousands of children orphans.

Minogue has sponsored Amali Range, a 14-year-old orphan who takes the lead role in the production. Amali lost her father in the Sri Lankan civil war and her mother in the tsunami.

In a statement, the singer said she had agreed to help the Sri Lankan acting company because she was moved by their stories of survival.

"I loved hearing the children's stories and I hope that people around the world will share my enthusiasm for this wonderful project," she said. "The Children of the Sea is a magical story full of hope and joy and deserves to be the highlight of the festival."

Gough formed the idea for the play while touring Asia with his Cuban-style musical Lady Salsa, which he premiered at the festival. A senior Red Cross official saw the performance and asked him to take a theatrical production to the tsunami-stricken areas.

He held acting workshops in "displacement" camps for the homeless and recruited 15 actors aged between 14 and 20. They are now supported by a cast of adult actors and musicians and a Bollywood choreographer has helped devise the dance sequences.