by Carla Caruso

The Adelaide Park Lands recently became a dramatic backdrop for a kids’ theatre show.

The Narrator, part of the DreamBIG Children’s Festival in late May 2021, was a show with a difference. The windows of a moving bus acted as screens through which the audience watched a classic story of childhood rejection and betrayal unfold.

Guests jumped aboard for the unique bus trip at Elder Park in Tarntanya Wama (Park 26), with the play kicking off once a maths geek-style narrator (Zak Pidd) climbed on at Victoria Square/Tarntanyanggga.

Real sites became part of the story, with the narrator mentioning such things as family picnics in Whitmore Square/Iparrityi and a ‘forest bunker’ hangout as a kid – really a public toilet at Bonython Park/Tulya Wardli (Park 27).

Live actors also appeared and disappeared beyond the glass, from a girl hiding in the cemetery at G.S. Kingston Park/Wirrarninthi (Park 23) to a lad dashing through the sporting fields at Ellis Park/Tampawardli (Park 24).

Melbourne creator and director Jessica Wilson described the show’s concept like “painting onto the real world”. She developed it through a residency in Latvia.

Converting the story to Adelaide proved somewhat challenging. “[Originally] I made it on a tiny town in Latvia, where you can weave in and out and stuff, and people can run.” Adelaide was different. “You need to think of interesting sites but also how [actors] are going to get ahead of you on the bus. There are all these backstage shenanigans going on, with vans zooming off up shortcuts.”

While rerouting the show was hard, Jessica said it was also satisfying. “I couldn’t believe I could just drive down a road and there was no sign, saying, ‘Don’t go down there.’ You’re sharing it with bikes; it’s very European actually. I found quite a few places that I could bring a bus into, which I just couldn’t believe. It’s all wonderful and so close to the city.”

Other theatre groups could do well to take note, with such shows illuminating the Park Lands without the need for erecting any permanent structures.