And your taxes are paying for it.
An Indonesian man points directly at the audience.
His comment is simple and powerful; at least 60 Indonesian minors have been jailed in Australia for working on asylum seeker boats.
This injustice is the focus of Sandra Thibodeaux’s play. It tells the story of fifteen-year-old Ikan (Imam Setia Hagi) who finds himself imprisoned here, a foreign country. The Australian authorities seemingly make little attempt to contact his family, and his parents (Imas Sobariah and Budi Laksana) are grief stricken at his disappearance.
The lost boy, of course, is Down Under, and this allows for a brilliant conceit: Ikan doesn’t languish in a cell, rather we see him beneath the ocean, surrounded by an array of bewildering sea creatures, brought to life by extraordinary puppetry (I Made Gunanta and I Wayan Sira) and performance (including Kadek Hobman as a very Aussie hammerhead, loutish yet not incapable of kindness.) This world beneath the sea suggests both the greatest fears of a fishing-based culture, and the absolute absurdity of Ikan’s predicament.
Created through collaboration between artists from the two countries, The Age of Bones is a thrilling mix of English and Indonesian (with the latter translated in surtitles.) Projection, puppetry, and set that’s a wonderful evocation of a sailing boat, make for a visually stunning production.
Working with Thibodeaux’s beautiful play, directors Iswadi Pratama and Alex Galeazzi have created a piece that is amusing, engaging and challenging.
Great theatre confronts its audience, asking crucial questions. The Age of Bones asks have we lost our way?
Paul Gilchrist
The Age of Bones by Sandra Thibodeaux
Riverside Theatre, Parramatta
Produced by Performing Lines / Satu Bulan / Teater Satu
This production has closed in Parramatta, but plays in Darwin 30 March to 9 April.
Tix and info here
Theatre Red 
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