UNIVERSITY Tour Date 2025

“Our Lives are timed around phone calls and visits that clash with our footy practice, dance classes, mate’s birthday parties, school lessons… We move house and live with our nans, granddads, aunties and uncles. We go to school and dodge looks and questions, what did they do? How long did they get? Have you seen them? We get our heads down, try to get good marks, stay out of trouble, blend in, be normal…’

8 Hours there and Back’ follows the stories of Ruby, Jake and Grace as they navigate a world that they shouldn’t be in and a system that has forgotten about them. Inspired by the real-life testimonies of children and young people who have a parent in prison and told through a fusion of theatre, dance and projections, ‘8 Hours There and Back’ examines how a system set up by adults is failing the children.

The 2025 tour will be going to Universities that train teachers, journalists, police officers, prison officers and social workers. These were chosen by the children when we asked “who needs to hear your story?”

The audience will experience the show before taking part in a day long training exploring centering child voice when creating policy and practice. It will explore best models of practice to empower, inform and inspire those participants to go on in to their future careers knowing how to create policy and procedure for these children and why it matters.

To book or have a chat pleaser email sarahallthingstc@gmail.com

Previous Feedback on TraininG

88% had never attended a theatre based training event before

93% felt it was more useful than traditional training models

92% felt that they were now more informed in updating and contributing to policies

72% did not have a specific policy to support children with a parent in prison or did not know if they had one within the workplace

“It was an eye opening for me as I never thought about many of the things that was shared in the performance such as the families address and location been published in through the media, the visiting and phone call timing, the impact on children around their peer and community etc.”

“Very eye opening and will make changes in how we take care of this cohort.”

“I learnt a lot and it was a very valuable experience to be able to hear from the voices of children themselves”