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Drama Essay Sample Stolen by Jane Harrison

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Drama Essay Sample Stolen by Jane Harrison
Drama Essay Sample Stolen
Stolen by Jane Harrison, depicts the broken lives of five children; Ruby, Sandy, Anne, Shirley andJimmy; and in doing so, portrays a myriad of personal experiences of those living in AustralianSociety. Harrison does this through the skilful use of dramatic techniques, which are used to conveyvarious personal experiences, such as Sexual Abuse and Personal Identity, and it is through theseexperiences in which Harrison demonstrates the personal experiences of the Stolen Generation.Ruby is one of the most central characters of the performance, and she is used to portray to theaudience the acts of sexual abuse that occurred within Australian Society during 1869 and 1969.Harrsion portrays this abuse and its crippling effects on Rubys mental state in the scene RubysDescent into Maddness. This is achieved through a variety of dramatic techniques, particularly,Space, Tension and Sound. As Ruby takes centre stage we see Rubys Tormentors looming above her,representing their power over the broken Ruby. . . a series of commands are barked at Ruby, andher movements become frantic and uncontrolled as the commands become sexual andderogative . . . then all thats left is Ruby clawing at her arm in silence . . . as she re-enters centrestage Ruby stares at the audience as the sound of nails ripping at flesh becomes almost deafening . . .then the tension is broken as Ruby howls out a barely distinguishable WHERE ARE YOU??? . . .answered with a lonely silence, leaving the audience to experience the loneliness of Ruby as they areforced to confront the horrors that many of the Stolen Generation faced. Thus Harrison delves intothe personal experiences of Sexual Abuse, and conveys these through the use of dramatictechniques.The personal experience of conflicting identity is one that many experience within their life, Harrisontakes this concept and manipulates it through Anne and the conflict between her heritage and herfamily. This conflict is seen in

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