Binti's Journey at Tarragon Theatre Extra Space

Deborah Ellis's acclaimed young adult novel, The Heaven Shop, a story about the human impact of the AIDS pandemic in Africa, is being adapted into a play entitled Binti's Journey. It is the story of Binti Phiri, a 13-year-old African girl, who loses her home and family to AIDS. It is about her journey to her grandmother's village and her discovery of a deeper understanding of family and community.

Binti's Journey, directed by acclaimed poet ahdri zhina mandiela and adapted by Marcia Johnson, was commissioned and developed by Theatre Direct.

The play runs February 21 to March 8 at Tarragon Theatre's Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Avenue, in Toronto. A special fundraising performance will be held on Saturday, February 23 at 1:00 p.m. in support of Green Arts Barns studio space.

Deborah Ellis is the acclaimed author of Bifocal and the Breadwinner trilogy. She has been honoured with the Vicky Metcalfe Award for a body of work and the Africana Book Award. She has traveled the world to meet with and hear the stories of children marginalized by war, illness, and poverty. The Heaven Shop won the Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Award in 2006, the Jane Addams Children's Book Award in the category of Honour Books for Older Children in 2005, and it was a Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice in 2005. She is Open Book's March Writer in Residence.