How Bluey made the move from animation to stage

ArtsHub speaks with 'Bluey's Big Play' puppetry director Jacob Williams and performer Jess Golle on translating from screen to stage and the power of make-believe.

Five years into the Bluey phenomenon and it could be easy to be cynical. After books, albums, and a merchandising juggernaut that can weary even the most dedicated parental Bluey fan, there is also, in case you missed it, a Bluey stage show.

Bluey’s Big Play was first performed in December 2020 at QPAC after a lengthy COVID-induced delay, one of the first theatre shows performed to a live audience in Australia post-lockdown. The show has since toured Australia and the US. In the intervening years, a new generation of Bluey fans have made their appearance on the planet, so it’s little surprise that the show is now returning to QPAC for its third season.

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Gemma Betros is an historian, arts critic and writer based in Toowoomba, Queensland. She studied at the University of Queensland and the University of Cambridge, and has held academic posts in the UK, US, and Australia. Previous reviews have appeared in the Australian Book Review and Sydney Review of Books, where she was a 2021 Emerging Critics Fellow.