Stolen

Nearly 20 years after its first performance Jane Harrison’s acclaimed play, Stolen, will return to the stage this June.

The National Theatre of Parramatta has enlisted the help of renowned Indigenous performance maker Vicki Van Hout to bring the conversation back to the issues that have so greatly impacted Aboriginal families and the history of the nation. Stolen tells the story of five Aboriginal children ripped from their families and tracks their journey from the harsh children’s home to a life of segregation.

“It is important that works like Stolen, which reveal a social atrocity, remain in the public realm because they act as reminders to behave with kindness and integrity,” said Van Hout.

\While there can be no single story or representation for the Stolen Generations, Harrison’s text remains contextually and historically important in the decades since. Van Hout also hopes the play will continue to serve as a reminder of how not to act.

“I think that if audiences come away with a heightened sense of empathy and compassion, we will have received a measure of success,” she said. “To sit through a subject as uncomfortable as this, to reflect upon the ramifications and to know this work represents a non-fiction is almost enough in itself,” she continued.

Theatregoers are encouraged to remember and reflect at Riverside Theatres in Parramatta. (CB)

June 2–17. Riverside Theatres, Cnr Church & Market Streets, Parramatta. $35-$49. Tickets & info: riversideparramatta.com.au

BY CAITLIN BURNS