Venue: Wharf 1 Sydney Theatre Company (Walsh Bay NSW), Jun 6 – Jul 6, 2024
Playwright: Jane Harrison
Director: Ian Michael
Cast: Jarron Andy, Mathew Cooper, Kartanya Maynard, Stephanie Somerville, Megan Wilding
Images by Daniel Boud
Theatre review
Stories about five Indigenous people from the Stolen Generations, interweave in Jane Harrison’s 1998 play, Stolen. Fractured yet determined, it remains an important representation of a collective trauma, one that is fundamental to the experience of being Australian, no matter one’s class or creed. Direction by Ian Michael is distinctive in its sense of quietness, although its power and impact are undeniable. Michael’s presentation of Stolen bears a meditative quality, almost reticent with its drama, yet none will be able to escape its confrontational and introspective effects. The poignancy of this staging is sure to be unforgettable.
A set design by Renée Mulder is based on the simple idea, of depicting the vulnerability of Blak children, in a space that demonstrates unequivocally, their powerlessness in the face of colonialism. Trent Suidgeest’s lights enhance the severe coldness of this brutal history, and James Brown’s music has us absolutely gripped by its melancholic foreboding. There is a sensitivity to these designers’ work, that cushions us in a certain safety, whilst intricately facilitating our observations of some truly harrowing events.
An ensemble of charismatic First Nations actors brings great courage and commitment, to this narrative of appalling injustice. Jarron Andy, Mathew Cooper, Kartanya Maynard, Stephanie Somerville and Megan Wilding may be required to delve into unremitting tragedies in their re-enactments, but it is their incredible resilience as individuals and as a people, that leave an impression.
The sensation of catharsis, that features so prominently in many offerings of theatre, is discernibly missing from Stolen. We continue to live on stolen lands, unable and unwilling, to come to a satisfactory resolution, therefore it is that corresponding feeling of unease and ruefulness that we find lingering, when the performance concludes. We are deprived of emotional release, because so much work needs to be done, before any of us can be granted anything that resembles deliverance.
Suzy Goes See 