★★★½☆ Australian classic on stolen generations gets fresh look with sprite in its step.

Riverside Lennox Theatre, Parramatta
June 3, 2016 

Under a yarn-bombed tree, with its trunk and branches wrapped in a sunny mix of woollen colours, five indigenous children are acting out their ambitions. Ruby, Jimmy, Shirley, Sandy and Ann hilariously tumble over one another as they try on the aspirational skins of fireman, circus performer, movie star, bus driver, farmer. But a game-show buzzer sounds at each career suggestion, and these kids, played by adults, call out in unison: “Nah.”

The music box-like tinkling of the old Vegemite jingle – “helps put a rose in every cheek” – is rich in irony, not iron. These kids aren’t being built up for their potential; they’re mostly being primed for servitude. Ruby (Berthalia Selina Reuben) speaks to a doll as her mother. She dreams about the lolly shop and new dresses, and will be repeatedly called upon from the line-up: to be pressed and literally kicked into washing, cooking and scrubbing for white people. Her descent into madness is to come, presaged by hints of institutional sexual abuse:...