Popular with the entire family: Classic Aussie tale to be performed in Buninyong

Buninyong-based performance group, The Bard in Buninyong, will be performing part two in their retelling of The Magic Pudding on Saturday, December 2, at the Gift House Garden on Warrenheip Street.

There will be five performances of Pudnapped! every hour between 11am and 3pm on Saturday, which will be ideal for children at about 20 minutes long.

Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding, first published in 1918, tells the story of the koala Bunyip Bluegum, sailor Bill Barnacle and penguin Sam Sawnoff, as they roam the Australian outback while trying to protect their treasured possession, a rude but magical pudding, from thieves.

Lindsay was born in Creswick, and is one of Australia's most famous artists, who was a prolific painter, illustrator and cartoonist.

The Bard in Buninyong director Susan Pilbeam said Pudnapped! was the "second slice '' of the story, after the group performed the introduction to the play a year ago.

"It's a heap of fun, there's all these bizarre and strange characters," she said.

"In the second slice the pudding gets pudnapped, so they lose the pudding [and] most of the play is them playing detective and running around trying to find what happened to the pudding and rescue it.

"Eventually they do of course, but there's a lot of adventures along the way."

The Magic Pudding has been entertaining youngsters for more than 100 years, because of this, Ms Pilbeam said performances would be popular for parents and grandparents as well as children.

"The way we're doing it is very panto, they [the audience] get to shout out and point at things, the characters are all larger than life and rather strange," she said.

"I think the language is fun for them [children] too even if they don't necessarily understand every word, it's all about playing that language and the sound of it is exciting for kids, it's full of strange and amazing words."

Hayley Beecham, who plays penguin Sam Sawnoff in the production, said she enjoyed the "pure joy" of performing in front of children.

"It's not every day you get to play a penguin, I think when kids see such a recognisable animal they go crazy for it," she said.

"It's just a lot of fun being able to play off the kids' reactions."

The Bard in Buninyong will be performing Pudnapped! at the Gift House Garden at 408 Warrenehip Street, Buninyong, on Saturday December 2, 2023.

Shows run for approximately 20 minutes and will start at 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm and 3pm, with a $5 entry fee.