Winton’s quirky humour inspires

Hold on to your bottom, The Bugalugs Bum Thief is coming to town.

Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People has brought Tim Winton’s popular children’s book to life with the stage production of The Bugalugs Bum Thief.

Already well received by audiences all over the east coast, the show opens with the three actors sporting big prosthetic bottoms made out of foam and invoking gasps from the audience.

Carl Batchelor, who is one of only three actors playing 11 characters in the show, said the response from children in the audience had been extremely positive.

‘‘For some of the kids it’s the first time they’ve been to the theatre and they call out which gives us licence to play with the audience in a way you don’t traditionally get to do in stage shows.

‘‘We’re performing for people who’ve never seen this show— or anything like it before— and you can see it sparks their imagination to read books and to perform,’’ he said.

Thanks to West Australian author Tim Winton — and Monkey Baa — a new generation of readers are being introduced to the wonderful world of imagination, literature and theatre.

Tim Winton loved the stage adaptation when he saw the show premiere in Sydney, after just four weeks of preparation.

Rumour has it MrWinton, who currently resides in the South West, will attend the performance for a second time when the roadshow comes to Bunbury.

Each school performance is followed by a Q&A session, providing students with the opportunity to develop a greater understanding of performance, their peers and the world in which they live.

‘‘You can never tell how the audience will react but hopefully theBunbury audiences will be as crazy, fun and unpredictable as everywhere else we have been so far,’’ said Batchelor.

The Bugalugs Bum Thief tells the story of the town of Bugalugs where all 496 inhabitants wake up one morning to find their buttocks missing.

With the help of his best mates Billy Marbles and Mick Misery, Skeeta Anderson sets out to discover where all the bums have gone and to find the culprit.

Two school shows will be performed at the Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on Tuesday,September 18 at 11am and 1pm.

For bookings or more information contact BREC Ticketing on 1300 661 272.