Creature: An Adaptation of Dot and the Kangaroo

QPAC’s annual Out of the Box festival for kids eight years and younger kicked off yesterday with a strikingly imaginative and effective adaptation of Ethel C. Pedley’s beloved children’s classic Dot and the Kangaroo. Written in 1899, the tale of a young girl Dot who gets lost in the bush and is befriended by a kangaroo has enchanted generations of children for ages.

This current version which used large 3D projections, aerial performances, songs, music and dance was a forty-five minute feast for the eye. Ursula Yovich as the kangaroo and Kate Hosting as Dot narrated the piece shadowing actors Jordan O’Davies and Leeanne Litton who danced and played the roles. Yovich and Hosting both exuded warmth in their parts, whilst O’Davies and Litton provided the aerialist skill that gave the characters another dimension. The multi-talented Hosting also doubled on double-bass whilst Yovich owned the stage with her vocals of some very pleasant songs by Peter Kennard. Rick Everett brought comedy to the piece as he scampered around as the hare and a pompous platypus.

Dean Walsh’s aerial choreography added immeasurably to the captivating images, but it was digital designers, Andrew Bluff, Boris Bagatinni and Andrew Johnston who were really the stars of the show with their amazing 3D projections of the Australian bush and their B&W images of the characters that morphed into odd shapes and dissolved. The images added the memorable component to co-director David Clarkson and Cristabel Sved’s stylish production.

Pedley’s original book is filled with criticism of human interference of the wild and this message was clearly, but subtly, brought home in John Romeril’s text. There’s no doubt this Creature has legs. I’m sure it’ll hop interstate in a minute and who knows international audiences may even get to experience its magic in the future. It definitely satisfies its target audience.

Peter Pinne

Photographer: Darren Thomas