Jasper Jones at Queensland Performing Arts Centre

The smash-hit stage adaptation of the classic Australian coming-of-age mystery.

In the sizzling summer of 1965, a bookish 14 year-old boy flees from the boredom and bullying of small-town life by burying himself in stories of epic adventure. He never thought he’d find himself living one.

Charlie Bucktin lives in a tiny, insignificant bush town where nothing happens. Nothing, that is, until the town’s very own Huckleberry Finn – the light-fingered and dark-skinned Jasper Jones – stumbles upon a gruesome crime out by the dam. Who else would he call on for help but the sharpest kid around? A midnight tap at Charlie’s window sparks a race to solve a murder and clear Jasper’s name. Somewhere between Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and classic movie Stand by Me, Kate Mulvany’s adaptation of Craig Silvey’s novel is a bittersweet, joyous coming-of-age yarn set in a community where every weatherboard house hides a dark secret.

Sam Strong’s production of Jasper Jones sold out its Melbourne Theatre Company season and was nominated for four Helpmann awards including Best Play.