The timeless appeal of Mem Fox's children's book Possum Magic has been captured in a play coming to Newcastle's Civic Theatre in April.
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Audiences will meet Grandma Poss, who loves making magic and who one day makes Hush invisible to escape a snake. Hush has many wonderful adventures but being invisible isn't all it's cracked up to be, and she longs to see herself again. The problem is, Grandma Poss can't find the spell to make Hush visible again. And so their quest begins.
The Monkey Baa Theatre Company Production of Possum Magic uses puppetry, costumes and music to turn the whimsical world of the book into an exciting live experience for audiences aged three to eight and their families.
"Back in 1978, when I wrote a children's story as a university assignment, I'd have died of joy if I'd known it would eventually become Possum Magic ... now a play! And although I'm as old as Grandma Poss, I'm as excited as a child," Fox has said of the production.
Eva Di Cesare is co-adaptor of Possum Magic, and co-founder and artistic director of Monkey Baa Theatre Company. She was awarded the Sydney Theatre Award for 20 years of service to the young people of Australia in 2017.
"This play has been such a wonderful journey for us - the book is so loved," she told the Newcastle Herald.
"Mem Fox is thrilled with the production, and the original illustrators are too, and that makes us happy."
She wrote Possum Magic, the play, with Sandie Eldridge six years ago after spending 18 months discussing the book with primary school students at Bankstown West Public School.
"Before we put pen to paper we read the book with the children and talked about the relationship between grandparent and grandchild in the book, and about the possible ways of depicting invisibility," Di Cesare explained.
"These are just some of the themes that we really pull apart.
"But it really came alive for us when talking with the young people about invisibility; if someone can't see you, are you really there?
"We love to look at intergenerational relationships in our theatre work. Possum Magic was the perfect vehicle for us."
Di Cesare founded Monkey Baa 27 years ago with Eldridge and Tim McGarry. She says Monkey Baa has "always worked with young people to embed their voices and interests into our adaptations".
"We saw that there was a need for theatre for young people that wasn't just two dogs and a hoop, or learning how to brush your teeth.
"We all loved literature, we all loved young people, we loved reading, and we were all performers as well.
"We got the rights to The Bugalugs Bum Thief by Tim Winton which was a hilarious story about a town that wakes up one morning and all their bottoms are missing. Every year after that we thought 'This is the last one' and 27 years later here we still are."
Di Cesare directed the company's 2022 production of Sheena Knowles Edward the Emu which toured Australia and reached more than 50,000 young people. She also directed Jackie French and Bruce Whatley's Diary of A Wombat - winning the 2017 Glug Award for outstanding presentation for children - and adapted and directed Where the Streets Had a Name based on the novel by Randa Abdel-Fattah.
"We do a casting process for all of our shows because every show that we do requires a different set of skills," she said.
"We are about to do Josephine Wants to Dance for next year which is a full musical and requires people who can dance, sing and act.
"We try really hard to keep working to help build community. Inviting grandparents and their grandchildren to come see the show is such a great way to have a shared experience that is visceral."
