Special offer: Receive 25 per cent off tickets to Convict Escapes simply by entering the online discount code TO25 at the checkout.
Travel back in time to 1836 and imagine what it was like to be confined to the largest convict barracks in New South Wales. Hyde Park Barracks Museum is inviting children aged 6-12 years old to spend the autumn school holidays in broad arrow shirts, taking instructions from a mean superintendent, a lovesick cook and a convict ‘magpie’ wearing a clown suit.
Playwright Jessica Bellamy and director Danielle O’Keefe have created a choose-your-own adventure experience that has colourful characters lurking around every corner of the heritage property. Visitors will be tasked with completing a convict quest and earn their prized ‘ticket of leave’.
In the 90-minute experience, children will becoming part of the Barracks’ motley gang of convicts. They’ll meet rat catcher Henry Green and disorderly Ann Carruthers. They’ll also learn some convict slang, as well as lending a hand on laundry day and finding out what it’s really like to sleep in a hammock.