CHARACTERS

JIMMY He’s a mischievous boy. A shamed older boy. A sullen, angry adult with just one ray of hope: finding his family. Finally, a tormented man who gives up the fight.

RUBY A very young child who feels abandoned. A used and abused young woman. A crazy beyond reach.

SHIRLEY A stolen child who becomes a mother whose children are, in turn, stolen. A nurturer, the ‘earth mother’. She never gives up searching for her kids, and always looks to the future.

SANDY Always on the run. Never belonging anywhere. A traveller, a thinker, a storyteller. A man in search of something who finally finds it: a sense of place.

ANNE Too young to understand why she was being taken from her family, Anne just saw that she was better off materially. As a teenager she had no desire to find out more about her real family. Later, when she did meet them, she was bewildered. Although still ambivalent about her real family, there is some attraction to ‘going back’, which is largely unresolved.

The play is performed by five actors who, in addition to the above roles, take on the following roles (sometimes merely as voices offstage):

Sandy’s mum	Angry voice at grocery shop
Sandy’s cousin	Ruby’s tormentors: sleaze, lady, teenager, arsehole
Sandy’s aunt	Man at bus stop
Sandy’s aunty	Man at bar
Sandy’s uncle	Two sisters at bar
Anne’s adoptive mother	Anne’s black family
Anne’s adoptive father	Ruby’s father, Len
Apple orchard owner	Ruby’s sister
Jimmy’s mother, Nancy Wajurri	Real estate agent
Dog trainer	Man insulting Jimmy
Voices of authority	Prison warden
Lady in the wool shop