WHALE OF A TIME FOR AUDIENCE AT BURLEIGH HEADS
IT’S a location favoured by whale watchers, but now Burleigh Heads is welcoming a whale of an entirely different pursuasion.
Partnering with Bleach* Festival and Festival 2018, Melbourne theatre troupe Born In A Taxi has brought its play A Whale’s Tale to the Esplanade.
The play tells the story of Manilayo the humpback whale, actually a puppet crafted from recycled parachutes and eight kilometres of cotton.
Co-artistic director Carolyn Hanna said the show used slapstick and participation to teach its young audience about the dangers of pollution.
“It’s entertaining, it’s funny, but at the core of it it’s really opening the first page for kids to kind of go, ‘wow, what happens to all this stuff?’,” she said.
“Kids dig it, they really love it.”
But children aren’t just left in the audience – Ms Hanna’s 11-year-old son, Mani Bishop, and Flynn Murphy, 12, make up the play’s junior cast.
The Melbourne school boys said they were delighted to be a part of the show, even if their friends weren’t exactly jealous.
“We’re kind of the ones going, ‘you’re gonna be jealous right, just a little bit?’,” Mani said.
With acting in their blood, the pair both plan to be in the troupe as long as they can.
“We want to keep going, until we get fired, or too old.”
Born In A Taxi will perform at Burleigh throughout the day until tomorrow.