The play "Stolen" tells the story of five Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their parants and brought up in a tyrannic and forceful children's home. The pain and suffering they experienced is clearly shown through their eyes, as they try to understand a world where they have been told to forget their families, their home and their language.
Two of the main characters, Jimmy and Ruby, have suffered throughout the years living a life of pain, sorrow and trauma. In their helpless search to find their family and home, they experience sexual abuse which drives them to insanity and death. Jimmy spends most of his life in the children's home and in prison, and desperately wants to be reunited with his mother. During his periods of institutionalisation, he experiences sexual abuse but was unaware of what was happening to him. Tragically, his wish to be with his mother and the harsh events in his life force him to hang himself in custody. .
Ruby also lives a similar life to jimmy. Her wish is to find her family and her roots. However, at a young age she experiences sexual abuse and soon begins to hear voices in her head. When she is finally reunited with her family, she turns her back since she has lost them and herself a long time ago.
The other three characters, Shirley, Sandy and Anne helplessly try to fight the Welfare and reach their families but are disadvantaged because of their origin. They struggle to fit in a society which brings them up by telling them that their families are dead and they will never be able to see them. All three characters are angry at the Welfare or at their families, since Shirley and Sandy were taken away from their families and Anne found the truth when she least expected it. Sandy never finds his home because he "carries his home with him". Shirley is reunited with her family after they were stolen and has no memory of them during the past 25 years. And Anne was brought up in a white society not knowing of her Aboriginal origin.
