The Age of Bones, written by Sandra Thibodeaux and directed by Iswadi Pratama & Alex Galeazzi, follows the story of an Indonesian boy, Ikan, who goes fishing one day and fails to return.
Sandra Thibodeaux latest production to hit the Brown’s Mart stage tackles the traumatic experience of Indonesian teenagers caught up in Australia controversial refugee policy.
The Age of Bones explores the true story of 60 underage Indonesian boys who were jailed in Australia for working on refugee boats. They were falsely identified as adults and many were locked up for two years.
Thibodeaux discovered the plight of the teens when her own son was a similar age to those who were jailed.
“What saddened me the most was the parents had no clue where they boys were — they thought the boys had gone to work at sea and drowned at sea,” she said.
Thibodeaux was not shy about shining a light on Australia’s refugee policy and the impact on those most vulnerable to it but worked the story into a fantastical world “down under” in the ocean.
Read more at NT News Australia.
Read a review of The Age of Bones at Performing ArtsHub Australia.