The Koala Who Could review

Kevin the koala leads a busy life. He’s affably chatty with the animals who call up to him in his eucalyptus tree house, but he’s got far too much snoozing, leaf-bun chewing and general tree-clinging to do to climb down and join them in a game of ball. Besides, he can enjoy the spectacle of morning bush rush hour from where he’s dozing – until all that noisy dashing about below makes him too dizzy to watch.

We, too are left catching our collective breath during this high-energy, action-crammed stage version of Rachel Bright and illustrator Jim Field’s witty tale about taking chances, aimed at children aged three and over. Director and co-adapter Emma Earle has her cast of three hurtle through the 55-minute show, dancing, singing, reconfiguring scenery and operating puppets with alacrity. Quite a feat when the book is about a stationary, self-professed “king of the staying-still kings”.

Earle is helped considerably by Oli Townsend’s artful outback set. As we enter the auditorium – to the strains of Kylie Minogue’s early hits – we espy a distant, inconspicuous eucalyptus tree before an imposing sandstone monolith – an image recognisable from Field’s illustrations, but here enhanced by Aboriginal rock-painting swirls and an enormous star-symbol sun. But Picnic at Hanging Rock this is not, even when performers Christopher Finn, Danny Hendrix and Sarah Palmer bound on as irrepressible Boy Scouts, brandishing binoculars. These youngsters are soon transmogrified into Kevin (Finn), Wombat (Hendrix) and blue-necked Cassowary (Palmer), but not before employing a giant, Ikea-type construction manual to assemble a close-up section of the tree. Here we can closely observe Finn’s cuddly, tufty-eared koala puppet, whose first appearance prompts the biggest “ahhhhh” of the show.

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