A tag-team performance in time to beat the heat and the school holiday blues, Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny promises to take the young and the young at heart on a fantastic dream-like journey.

The double-bill of bedtime story classics brings to life the writing of American Margaret Wise Brown. The stories penned in the 1940s conquered the world’s attention then and the August shows promise to entertain a new generation.

Light but written with love

The Runaway Bunny is the charming tale of a rabbit who tells his mother he wants to run away from home. As only a mother could, she promises to chase our bunny, beginning an imaginary game between the pair.

No matter the shape our little bunny protagonist takes – from a fish in stream to a rock on a mountainside – his loving mother makes good on her promise to find him.

Along the way is calming dialogue, surreal imagery and the reassuring message of a mother’s love.

The second performance, Goodnight Moon, is an adaptation of a poem of goodnight wishes from a bunny-rabbit protagonist preventing his parents from putting him to bed. Gentle and humorous, this is a wonderful story to entertain pre-schoolers and older and have parents smiling knowingly.

A class act

Both stories are firm favourites around the world and this time around the tales are told through the world-class puppetry of the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia. Since 1972, this award-winning Canadian theatre company has used imaginative design elements, original music and challenging text to entertain more than 3 million people around the world. In this production, expect striking scenic effects and magical puppetry that introduce the performing arts and reading to its young spectators.

It is a welcome return to Macau for the Mermaid Theatre who are back nine years after performing their adaptations of the classic children’s picture books The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Quiet Cricket. The troupe will also be holding a behind-the-scenes workshop for inquisitive young minds.

Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny are part of the ARTmusing Summer 2010 festival that runs until the end of August.

The double-bill runs for three performances from August 6 to 8, in the small theatre at the Macao Cultural Centre. The daytime and two early evening performances are in Cantonese and English. Tickets are on sale now for MOP120, with discounts available.