SANCTUARY

$5.40 – $15.00

Thousands of children grew up in the care system in Victoria and Australia throughout the 1900s. They are called the "Forgotten Australians". Sanctuary by playwright Chris Dickins is based on the stories of some of those people. Sanctuary tells the stories of the babies' homes and the industrial laundries where young pregnant women worked as they were hidden away from society.

It tells of the young women who were forced to give up their babies and return to their lives and the innocent children growing up in often harsh and cruel environments where knowledge of where they came from or who they were was cruelly hidden from them. Sanctuary shows equally the neglect and the miraculous survival of the children and young women who called institutions home.

Sanctuary shows us the historical care system and social and political ideologies of the time that underpinned them in all their harsh reality. The stories of abuse, cruelty, humour, care, kinship and deep and life long connections are dotted throughout this dramatic portrayal about the "Forgotten Australians." Despite the realities there is humour, joy and a wondrous spirit of survival.

APT