Theatre In Preview

This emotional ensemble play by the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts will combine dance, music and theatre to tell the stories of six people who were part of the stolen generation.

Doug Maybir has been a student at the Centre for the last two years and will play one of the six lead characters in the piece. “It’s about the kids who have gone through an institution, growing up in an orphanage, and what’s happened in their life after they’ve come out of the orphanage and how they’re coping. Some are coping and some aren’t”, he says.

The play is directed by Leah Purcell and was written by Jane Harrison using actual stories of people who were part of the stolen generation. Maybir will play the part of Jimmy, and says he feels very privileged to have the opportunity to tell this man’s story.

“There are two parts to Jimmy. There’s a young Jimmy who starts off the play and he’s going through the institution of the children’s home. Young Jimmy is a vibrant young male, but as he gets older he starts to go within his shell.” Maybir, who himself is in his late forties, will play the older Jimmy. “When he becomes my age, around 50 years old, he’s a broken man who hasn’t met his mother yet. He has a chance to go and meet his mother and he goes out on this journey to meet her but he actually doesn’t get to, and without giving the story away, the impact on his life is quite big. It puts him further into the doldrums.”

As part of the preparation for the play, the students have had the chance to meet with a number of people who were part of the stolen generation, through the Link Up Program. “Over the last month we’ve seen maybe five or six people who have been through the stolen generation. They came in and told their story to us. It’s been fantastic to sit down and hear what these people had to go through, which was pretty harrowing as a young child to just be picked up and taken away from your family. I can’t fathom how bad that must have felt for them at the time.”

Maybir says hearing these people’s stories has given him and his fellow students a huge amount of inspiration.
“The whole school has lifted, we’ve all jumped up a notch or two to perform this play … I’m actually the only non-aboriginal guy who goes to the school. I’m an indigenous Fijian … but the play has brought up a lot of things for some of the pupils in the school. Maybe they weren’t directly involved but their grandparents were involved in the stolen generation or their aunties. So while we’ve been doing this play there’s been a lot of soul searching, a lot of things being found out and it’s affected a lot of the kids. But we’ve all come together really strong and everyone’s doing remarkably well. The rehearsals have been quite challenging but yeah, very enjoyable.”

While the subject matter being dealt with is quite serious and upsetting, Maybir says there is also an element of humour to the play.
“People are going to laugh, but at the end they’re probably going to cry. It is serious but there is comic relief … it will keep them on the edge of their seat.”

He’s hopeful that they play will help improve peoples understanding of this part of Australian history. “Everyone’s heard of the stolen generation but few have probably looked into it personally. The stories of the main characters do give you that personal touch of their journey. It’ll give people an understanding of what happened to the aboriginal race, which will be fantastic because there’s been a lack of education on aboriginal matters over the last two hundred years and it’s given the country no empathy or understanding. This play tells the true story of what happened to these people and the audience will get an understanding of what the aboriginal race have been through and how now they are starting to grow.”

‘STOLEN’ PLAYS AT THE CREMORNE THEATRE, QPAC, FROM NOVEMBER 2 – 5.