COntinued scene descriptions
Sandy’s Story of the mungee:
Your Mum’s Dead:
Line Up 2:
Anne’s Told She’s Aboriginal:
Unspoken Abuse 2:
Your mum’s Dead: (later date)
To Tan or Not to tan:
Shirley’s Memories:
Line up Age 12:
Shirley knits for her family:
Shirley is always knitting and we also see the photo album.
Jimmy
Can of peas:
Hypocritical nature of the welfare is displayed.
All ‘white’ food literally. Can of peas was given by the welfare is off at the back of the cupboard which ultimately breaks up his family
Jimmy being naughty again:
Looking guilty.
Angry laugh as opposed to cheeky laugh.
Racial terms used in this scene – “ya black bastards”
Justifications
Line up 3:
“ I do what im told”
he gets selected – Shirley sais not don’t go.
Ultimately Jimmy is picked.
Themes:
Visual symbolism
No naturalistic – style of theatre
Racism
Identity
Family
Aboriginal speech patterns - (Aboriginal English)
Essay Question:
“Audience are not only entertained: they are made to be engaged with the social concerns explored in plays”. Discuss this view with reference to your study and experience of the play ‘Stolen’.
soundscape
staged first few scenes.
Identify in your answer
Forms, styles, techniques, elements of drama, elements of production.
- Draw connections between stolen generations and sandy’s story of the Mungee.
- “And the people would know. And the people would never forget”.
- Children then go back to their beds.
Your Mum’s Dead:
- Jimmy is distressed and lonely.
- Matron- another faceless voice of a white man.
- Convention of epic theatre – projection of the letter.
- Jimmy then sings song “nobody loves me” – his song, usually a song of childhood games, is now a song of self pity and pathos (sad, regretful).
- Filing cabinet centre stage that doesn’t move. A symbol of a barrier in culture. A symbol of authority.
Line Up 2:
- They lack the capacity on how to change things.
Anne’s Told She’s Aboriginal:
- Anne’s parents took her in to ‘try to give her a better life’.
- Trying to avoid stereotypes- hard not to engage in stereotypes.
- Going in to be saviours (parents) as a result Anne has had a good upbringing.
- Humour comes out of this – two contrasting perspectives
- Anne didn’t know she was aboriginal.
- Anne was upset that her birth parents are alive. – Her mother wants to see her.
- The adopted parents then try to cover that up because they are aboriginal.
Unspoken Abuse 2:
- Another repeated scene – reprise of the patty cake game –jimmy again doesn’t understand what has happened to ruby.
- Jimmy snatches ruby’s present.
- The other kids notice what has happened to ruby and know to leave it alone.
Your mum’s Dead: (later date)
- Jimmy’s mum is Nancy
- References to knitting. – Shirley connection to Nancy.
- Filing cabinet slammed shut and a metaphor of bureaucracy.
- Barrier between cultures. – control of communication.
To Tan or Not to tan:
- Reference to Hamlet- Anne questioning getting a tan. Racial issues.
- Exploration of deep colour related issues. – Racial prejudice.
- Conflicting ideas of identity
Shirley’s Memories:
- A child in this scene.
- Jumped back in time and she is now a child.
- She owns the lower status in the scene. Being surrounded by authority figures
- Looking at a photo album and the photos are projected onto the walls. – epic theatre convention.
- This allows the audience to have a direct connection to Shirley.
- No narrative connected to the image and we have to piece together this story.
- Connect as we see that she has a family like we do.
- Other characters try to take the album from her and she tries to cling on to it (holding onto the past) but it is ultimately stripped from her.
Line up Age 12:
- Ruby is picked again from the line up.
- Slavery element- not paid for the wok done.
- Confronting falling bucket
- Cleaning routine 2:
- Playing a children’s game of what do you want to be when you grow up is played but with different texts.
- Then happy little vegemite song. – abuse undertaken.
- A lot of irony and humour in the scene.
- Finish with ruby’s words as she mops the floor. ”sorry mam”
Shirley knits for her family:
- Never gives up hope. Talking directly to audience
- We feel her frustration.
Shirley is always knitting and we also see the photo album.
Jimmy
Can of peas:
Hypocritical nature of the welfare is displayed.
All ‘white’ food literally. Can of peas was given by the welfare is off at the back of the cupboard which ultimately breaks up his family
Jimmy being naughty again:
Looking guilty.
Angry laugh as opposed to cheeky laugh.
Racial terms used in this scene – “ya black bastards”
Justifications
Line up 3:
“ I do what im told”
he gets selected – Shirley sais not don’t go.
Ultimately Jimmy is picked.
Themes:
Visual symbolism
No naturalistic – style of theatre
Racism
Identity
Family
Aboriginal speech patterns - (Aboriginal English)
Essay Question:
“Audience are not only entertained: they are made to be engaged with the social concerns explored in plays”. Discuss this view with reference to your study and experience of the play ‘Stolen’.
soundscape
staged first few scenes.
Identify in your answer
Forms, styles, techniques, elements of drama, elements of production.