Michael Scott-Mitchell's set looks as though it could have washed up on stage – artful driftwood, a small wooden boat. The dunes of the Coorong, so crucial to the topos of Colin Thiele's story, are wonderfully realised in a structure that looks part shack, part whale's rib cage. The hybrid nature of the home works – a well-meaning but taciturn Hideaway Tom (Peter O'Brien) and his son Storm Boy (Rory Potter) practically live in the water the way the storm rolls in here (Damien Cooper's lighting and Kingsley Reeve's sound bringing the force of the gale). Trevor Jamieson's Fingerbone Bill joins the fray as a wise fool, a protector of the animals in the neighbouring sanctuary; constantly cracking jokes, Jamieson's balance between humour and humanity evident even in just his physical performance, where clowning skills are on display alongside traditional dance.
When three orphaned pelicans enter their world (puppeteered with a real sense of life by Shaka Cook and Michael Smith) each man's brooding existence is forced into flight. Mr Percival provides for them perspective on what it means to care for another, on our roles in the world, and on what it's like to leave the nest.
