This year at ACO On The Pier, families will step inside a world of wood, wonder, truth, and transformation, with a brand-new reimagining of Pinocchio created by award-winning playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer and celebrated composer Bryony Marks. Their collaboration continues ACO Families’ mission to create shows that speak not only to children, but inviting generations to share the same story, in their own way.
Kruckemeyer relishes in the “lovely challenge” of an intentionally multigenerational audience. Theatre, he says, invites different ages to fall into the same world together. “You’re inviting one group, children, to discover a story that might be new to them, and another, parents or grandparents, to remember something they once carried. I just want to see people of all ages, falling into a story together.”
At a time when children’s lives are often shaped by screens, both artists feel strongly about what live performance offers. “We lament screen time,” Kruckemeyer says, “yet the moment you change their environment, kids fall so quickly back into childhood. Put them in a theatre and they remember exactly how to engage with the world.”
Marks agrees. In an era of rapid technological change, she believes that live performance will only grow more vital. “Where AI ends,” she says, “is where live human performance begins. People, especially children, will crave that interaction more and more. It’s crucial for us as a species.”
Reimagining a classic
In developing Pinocchio, both artists were drawn to the emotions beneath the familiar images: the growing nose, the sly fox, the wooden boy longing to be real.
Kruckemeyer explains, “Those images have such innate appeal, but the story endures because it’s really about identity. A boy questioning right and wrong, learning who to trust, trying to understand why choices matter.”
For Marks, the musical language began with something elemental: wood.
“Pinocchio is carved from wood, string instruments are made of wood, and we’re building a sound world full of wooden percussion and strings.”
“It’s a magic trick,” Kruckemeyer says. “An inanimate thing suddenly elicits emotion. Music can conjure feeling long before we even understand why.”
A shared space, a shared experience
One of the joys of an ACO Families production is the intimacy of the performances in The Neilson. Instruments are played just metres away, by real people, sound created before young eyes.
“For many children,” Marks says, “this is their first close encounter with instruments they might never otherwise see. These programs offer a sense of belonging. Some children find their home in music, and it can change their whole world.”
Kruckemeyer also reflects on the way audiences shape the art in real time. “A theatre is an empty vessel until the families enter. Performance is a conversation, the children bring their curiosity, the artists bring their craft, and they meet in the middle. That’s why it works.”
For families, and for the future
Kruckemeyer and Marks hope that both adults and children leave delighted and engaged.
“It’s important that adults feel this is for them too,” Marks says. “The work is welcoming and accessible, but also musically ambitious with a level of sophistication, that still opens its arms to everyone.”
Kruckemeyer adds, “Children deserve rich narratives which centre people their age and invite them to go on big, scary, epiphanous, brave journeys. When parents witness their child rising to meet a story made for them with care and rigour, that’s a powerful thing.”
In Pinocchio, the ACO offers audiences a reminder of the courage it takes to grow and the spark that makes us real, no matter our age.
Pinocchio is showing at The Neilson, ACO On The Pier, 9 - 19 July 2026.
