The Ballad of Bonnie wheeler (1988)
Producer: Magpie Theatre, Adelaide, 1988
A music-theatre, child-and-family production depicting the life and times of farmer soldier-settlers on Kangaroo Island through the eyes and relationship of a sturdily over-imaginative daughter of the family and her beloved but irritating small brother.
REVIEWS
"Verity Laughton…tells a tale, set in 1962, about some children of the original soldier settlers (on Kangaroo Island)…the harshness of these people’s pioneering days is muted in the play, but ever-present. It is set off nicely against the struggles of their children, who have their own terrors, tragedies, and disappointments among the good times…The generations come together when Bonnie’s mother, Jenny, says that her first memory of the island was the unending soughing of the wind, and a loud murmur runs through the audience. Everybody knows about the Kangaroo Island wind…”
Tim Lloyd, The Advertiser, November, 1988