Sunday, December 17, 2006

Wombat divine!

Wish you could see the wonderful windows of the Myer's Department Store on Bourke Street, a Christmas tradition. This year, the five windows tell the story of WOMBAT DIVINE, a worthy continuation of the tradition of the Magic Pudding and the Possum Creek critters. Amazingly, considering 1.2 million people are expected to see them, I can find no images of the windows online (except for two scenes which prurient people found suggestive), so here's the cover of the children's book by Mem Fox on which it's based.

The story is of a Christmas pageant put on by Australian animals, but they just can't find a part for wombat. He's too big to be Mary, too short to be a king, too heavy to be an angel (when the koalas trying to hoist him up give up he lands on a seesaw, sending an unsuspecting platypus flying), too short-sighted to be a shepherd, and too sleepy for everything, tending to curl up and snooze whenever he can. The animals move and gesture, but what's most delightful (to me at least!) is that the designer clearly knows and loves the theater. So we see scenery rolling down and up, lights being tested, a whole workshop of elves making props and sewing costumes, and in the middle window we get to see an entire empty theater with a balcony of velvet-covered seats revealed by scrims and curtains going up!

You can probably guess what role sleepy wombat ends up getting. Though he's a little big for it, he snoozes just like a baby as the kangaroo kings arrive with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh!