Parramatta Girls

rdf:langString Parramatta Girls

rdf:langString Parramatta Girls is a play written by Australian playwright Alana Valentine. It is a dramatised account of the collected testimonies of former inmates of the Parramatta Girls Home, staged as a reunion forty years after the institution closed. Valentine began writing the play after watching an Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) television programme (Stateline) in 2003 which documented the experiences of three Indigenous women - Marjorie, Coral, and Marlene - who had been incarcerated at the Girls Home. She immediately sought to (and did) interview these women. In the weeks following, Stateline broadcast more episodes on non-Indigenous women's experiences in the Home, which prompted Valentine to construct the script. "I thought that this was a story that needed to be understood in more detail than 15 minutes on a current affairs programme would allow. [...] It immediately struck me as the voices of people who had not been heard on the Australian mainstage. It immediately struck me that surviving such an institution must involve an incredible story of triumph and courage. These were women with guts, attitude and humour and they were crying out to have their story heard." - Alana Valentine (2007) The play was first performed by Company B of Belvoir St Theatre on 21 March 2007 (until 22 April 2007), directed by Wesley Enoch, and the script was later published in July 2007.