May Gibbs’s Gumnut Babies and Banksia Men have begun an Australia-wide journey in a new musical, The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom.

Premiering in January at the Sydney Festival (where the opening night was attended by Her Excellency the Governor of New South Wales, Professor Marie Bashir), the show moves to the Perth International Arts Festival during February and will then be produced at the Adelaide Festival in March.

The originator of the musical adaptation is Cate Fowler, artistic director of Adelaide’s Windmill Performing Arts Company. Fowler had the idea for a stage production based on Gibbs’s characters over a decade ago, but development has not been straightforward. Collaborating with director Neil Armfield, Fowler’s initial idea was to involve Nick Enright. The Sydney playwright accepted the project and was working on a script at the time of his death.

Following a hiatus, Fowler and Armfield again looked at the project. Armfield decided that if the work was to be resurrected, “we needed to scrap everything … we needed a completely fresh start” (Sydney Morning Herald, 30 December 2006).

Enter the comic genius of satirist John Clarke. Sydney Morning Herald theatre critic, Bryce Hallett, describes Clarke’s book and lyrics as ‘witty and sparkling, not just quips about mateship or mismatched flora and fauna but sly, satirical observations about the media, celebrity, sport and politics’ (15 January 2007).

Fowler’s dream is that The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom will show that ‘May Gibbs is not a museum piece. She has contemporary resonance and hopefully this will place Gibbs where she should be in our cultural history’ (Advertiser, 25 October 2006).

Source: AusLit News

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