This delightful show for children of all ages is being presented by Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, the leading contemporary group of puppeteers and puppet designers in the country. Over the years, this team of artistic boffins has taught children how to interpret stories, and in turn, the presenters have learned from their audiences what the youngsters love and expect.

This production can be seen at Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, 1 Short Street in Fremantle, adjoining the lawn opposite the Fremantle railway station. Shows are daily at 10.00 am and 1.00 pm, from 4^th to the 30^th of January 2016.

Centre stage is a short staircase leading to the front door of Miss Lily’s exotic holiday resort hotel (set designer Iona McAuley).

     Three koalas enter carrying a cricket bat; they are Mum (Rebecca Bradley), Dad (Shane Adamczak) and their mad son (Nick Pages-Oliver). The koalas are renowned for being stupid. They are training for a sports competition against the wombats, not knowing that the actual competition sport is footie.

     Dragging his suitcase is a large quokka-looking animal called Potoroo. He is exhausted and is relieved to find his hotel – ‘Miss Lily’s’. He is horrified to find that Miss Lily is actually a large crocodile (Rebecca Bradley), she seems very friendly, but will Potoroo be eaten?

     Potoroo is sad because he is the only Potoroo left in the world. He has searched everywhere to find others without success.

     Miss Lily tries to cheer up Potoroo by dancing the tango with her magical, pink feather boa. In his excitement, Potoroo gets into trouble and perhaps danger too.

This is a delightful story that thanks to clever direction and planning by Michael Barlow, moved at a cracking pace ensuring that even the youngest audience members – there were quite a few aged only four – were enthralled. The youngsters sat open-mouthed at the hilarious action and the visual effects. Lighting designer Karen Cook’s work was exceptional, some of the illusions required careful lighting. Musical composer, Lee Buddle, created quirky fun-filled tunes to complement the action.

Although all of the scenery shifting was carried out by the cast, the production managers, Elliot Chambers and Chad Wetton safeguarded that the costume changes were slick, as the action was timed to the split second. On several occasions, the cast exited stage left and reappeared stage right seconds later, wearing a different costume.

The puppets were some of the best I have seen that the Spare Parts theatre, which can always be relied upon to produce top-class puppets. So respected are Spare Parts that they have linked with WAAPA and Curtin Theatre students creating courses to show the complex tricks behind making and operating a quality puppet. The puppet makers for this show were Iona McAuley, Sanjiva Margio, Leon Hendroff, and Bryan Woltjen. Miss Lily was a full-sized crocodile that appeared most realistic. It had to be light enough for the puppeteer and operator to dance with and yet look convincing. Lyndell Darch supervised the fabric construction.

This play, in the intimate atmosphere of this theatre, was perfect for children over 4 years old. The three actors, who are recognised as first-class stand-up comics, vividly brought to life the many characters of the story. It was wonderful to hear so many young children loving, possibly, their first live show. Highly recommended.

Hannie Rayson has written fourteen plays, but is mainly known for ‘Hotel Sorrento’ and her Miles Franklin Award nominated ‘Life after George’. However, Hannie has also been awarded two Australian Writers’ Guild Awards, four Helpmann Awards, two NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award as well as the Age Performing Arts Award and The Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award, putting her in a small, select Australian group of authors.

The Black Swan State Theatre Company is presenting this wonderful, two and a half hour play nightly at 7.30 until the 4^th October.

Bryan Woltjen’s innovative sets consist of a vet’s operating room, an office and a residential, high-rise flat – all minimalistic, with no trimmings. The view from the rear windows brought life to the rooms. In the second Act, there was a woodland scene, which blew everyone away bringing the designer an enthusiastic applause.

The complex sound effects (Ben Collins) ranged from the tropical storm, to squeals of the quoll and the chatter of the woodland creatures, very clever. As ever, Trent Suidgeest’s lighting design was employed to great effect in creating atmosphere.

Voice coach, Luzita Fereday, guided Hannah Day’s soft Philadelphia accent.

     Veterinary surgeon, Andy Dixon (Myles Pollard) has travelled the world treating exotic animals. On one of his trips, he met a young woman, Piper Ross (Hannah Day) who was wholeheartedly dedicated to the conservation of animals. Now, back in Australia, they open a country veterinary practice.

     One night, as a storm rages, a man rushes into the practice carrying a wild animal wrapped in a blanket. It is an injured quoll. The concerned driver, Harry (Matt Dyktynski) has just hit the creature with his 4-wheel drive. As Piper starts treating the Tiger Quoll, she is inwardly quite thrilled, as quolls have not been seen in their area for at least a decade. Andy returns from delivering a calf, and after a clash with Piper on the best therapy for the quoll, continues the treatment.

     The vet’s sister, Heather Dixon-Brown (Sarah McNeill) has a research PhD, and is Professor of Conservation at the university. She too is devoted to preservation, but is frustrated that all of the government funding seems to go to the wrong causes and her projects could close through lack of support.

What a wonderful script. In the wrong hands this could easily have become a tedious lecture, however, Hannie has given the story dozens of interesting and controversial story threads, some of which explode when you least expect.

The director, Stuart Halusz, was faced with a dialogue-based script and little action, but being an award-winning actor, he has the skills to ensure his magnificent cast have dominated their complex, fascinating characters.

For most scenes, Rayson had only two of the cast on stage at a time; this allowed the true temperaments, and various foibles, to become slowly obvious to the audience. This permitted us to see how strong or delicate the interrelationships actually were.

The play had controversy, humour, suspense, sadness and of course, the all-important SEX.

It is a long time since I have heard such an enthusiastic final applause from an audience. The ‘Quollity of enthusiasm was not restrained’, a superbly written, uplifting, wonderful night’s entertainment by a skilled cast.