Jasper Jones at Dunstan Playhouse

Let’s begin with a cracker play for any Australian, of any age*, and any creed. We’d love you all to come.

The backblocks of Western Australia. It’s summer, 1965. Overseas there’s war in Indochina, Civil Rights marches, the stirrings of women’s liberation – but at home Charlie Bucktin dreams of writing the Great Australian Novel.

Charlie’s 13 and smart. Perhaps too smart. But when blamed-for-everything Jasper Jones appears at his window one night, Charlie’s out of his depth. Jasper has stumbled upon a terrible crime in the scrub nearby, and he knows he’s the first suspect – that goes with the colour of his skin. He needs every ounce of Charlie’s bookish brain if the truth is to emerge before the town turns on Jasper.

As the boys negotiate the secrets of a small town, the winds of change blow… But how do teenage Australians solve the riddles of a changing world?

Kate Mulvany’s adaptation of Craig Silvey’s award-winning novel is like Dorothy Hewett riffing on Harper Lee. It’s funny and it’s wise.

A coming-of-age story for a generation, and a nation too.