Stolen

Jane Harrison

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781921428609
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Stolen tells of five young Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their parents, brought up in a repressive children's home and trained for domestic service and other menial jobs. Segregated from society from their earliest years, not all of them successfully manage their lives when released into the outside world.

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The pain, poignancy and sheer desperation of their lives is seen through the children's own eyes as they struggle to make sense of a world where they have been told to forget their families, their homes and their language. This tender and moving story, awash with childlike humour, brings the tragic history of the Stolen Generations to the Australian stage.

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Features an introduction by Wesley Enoch on his experience of directing the first production of Stolen.

ARRIVING

With the house lights still up and ominous music heard, the actors walk in from the rear of the stage; each holding a suitcase, they stand diagonally across the stage. They look out into the audience, acknowledging those they recognise, their eyes searching the audience for compassion.

Then each of the actors slips into their character as a child. Their body language changes, and they speak over the top of one another and in the ‘stream of consciousness’ style of the very young. They talk about home, family—especially their mothers and fathers. Their voices are full of hope, but tinged with sadness. The cue to finish is:

RUBY: My mum’s coming for me.

ADULT FLASHES

RUBY rocks and sings a crazy lullaby.

RUBY: Don’t need no home of me own. Got enough to do.

SANDY pats the suitcase on his bed.

SANDY: I carry my home with me.

ANNE straightens up the pretty bedspread on her bed.

ANNE: My home’s got lace curtains—and I’ve got a room of my own.

JIMMY gazes into the distance through the bars of his prison cell (his bed). His mood is heavy and foreboding.

JIMMY: I’m finally gunna meet my mother.

SHIRLEY looks excited.

SHIRLEY: Eh! I’m gunna be a grandmother!

It’s dark and we hear sounds of a woman giving birth at SHIRLEY’s bed. Moans. Cries.

VOICE: One more push. Big push. Keep going. You’re doing great.

A baby’s cry.

It’s a girl!

SHIRLEY hurries to front centre stage. She waves a little hand-knitted jumper at us. And she has a parcel. She’s excited.

SHIRLEY: I know, she’ll probably get tons of baby clothes but she’s gotta get something from her grandma. A new baby. I bet there’s nothing like that feeling of holding your new grandchild—or any child—in your arms. The tiny little fingers. Those faces they pull…

She pulls a few baby faces. At the same time the lights rise on RUBY, crying like a baby. RUBY wails, then listens to see if someone is coming to pick her up. The next time her cry is louder and more demanding. Again no one comes.

Babies are so helpless, but it’s funny, you know. You hold a new baby again—and I had two of my own—and it’s you that feels vulnerable. Kate, I held you once in my arms and I didn’t get to hold you for another twenty-five years.

She holds the jumper to her cheek tenderly and pauses, caught up in a distant memory.

Heavens, [laughing with exhilaration] why am I standing here talking?! I’m going to be a grandmother!

RUBY meanwhile sits bolt upright and calls out.

RUBY: I want… I want my…

SHIRLEY’s voice catches. She’s thinking about the past.

SHIRLEY: I didn’t get the chance to be a mother to Kate and Lionel and now I’m going to be a grandmother!

RUBY: I want my mummy…

SHIRLEY: But this time, this time… [She wipes away a tear.] This time I’m going to hold my baby and never let her go.

RUBY: [screaming out] Where are you?

A bell rings. JIMMY, ANNE, RUBY and SHIRLEY begin their cleaning routine. SANDY, with his suitcase, wanders reluctantly into the environment. He puts the suitcase under the bed. Music comes up as sandy makes his bed while the others sweep and scrub the floor. The smell of Phenol wafts out to the audience. Then they stand to attention again. Another bell rings.

HIDING SANDY

Lights up to dawn. SANDY is sitting on his bedhead fishing.

SANDY’S MUM: [voice] Sandy! Sandy. We’ve gotta go.

SANDY: [reeling in a fish] What about my fish? I’ve caught a beauty.

SANDY’S MUM: [voice] Sandy, please, be a good boy. Let’s go.

SANDY: What about my stuff—you got my stuff?

SANDY’S MUM: [voice] There’s no time, Sandy. I’ll get them to send it.

SANDY: But Mum, my fish…

SANDY’S MUM: [voice] Sandy, run!

SANDY moves in a panicky fashion as if he was running away from something.

SANDY: Always on the run.

COUSIN: When me cousin came to stay, he was crying all the time. He wanted his mum and dad. My mum tried to make him feel better. She said they’d se...