“I wasn’t there ‘cause I wanted to be, I was there ‘cause I had to be, okay? If Josh hadn’t eaten my noodles, I wouldn’t be here…”

Would you risk breaking bail for a packet of Mi Goreng? Would you snitch on a mate to save your own skin? Around here, ordinary days can turn on you so fast you’ve still got a smile on your face as your hopes die in your hands.

Yani wants to go to the Easter Show, Kai wants a sense of home, Shanika wants her Mum back, and Lachlan… well, he just wants his bowl of noodles. But when the justice system is all that stands between these young people and what they want, it raises an important question—how do young people grow when the system keeps cutting them down?

After premiering at The Rebel Theatre for the 2024 Sydney Festival and winning the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Production for Young People, Saplings returns to the Sydney stage. Written by Yuwaalaray playwright Hannah Belanszky and directed by Kalkadoon artist Abbie-lee Lewis, this collection of hilarious and heartbreaking stories emerges from workshops with young people navigating the youth justice system from Marrickville to Moree. Four talented young actors take on multiple roles in this poetic, personal, and unexpected production that will leave you questioning: who’s really to blame?

Set to a soundtrack of rap and hip-hop music made by young people in the youth justice system, Saplings gives an honest, raw look into the adult consequences faced by some of our most vulnerable. 

Join us for a celebration of First Nations creativity, of laughter, tears and the survival instincts of young people.

Sydney Opera House presents an Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) production