Where Is The Green Sheep will arrive at the Coliseum Theatre in Rooty Hill this July with puppetry, music and playful family storytelling.
By mid-morning in Rooty Hill, the light settles softly across the broad streets around West HQ. Families drift toward cafés carrying prams and backpacks, children move ahead impatiently toward the theatre entrance, and the quieter pace of Western Sydney’s winter school holidays begins to take shape.
Inside the Coliseum Theatre, preparations will soon be underway for a different kind of performance – one built not around spectacle or scale, but around familiarity. A green sheep. A field of colours. A story many children already know by heart.
This July, Where Is The Green Sheep will arrive in Western Sydney for a limited season presented by Monkey Baa Theatre Company and the Coliseum Theatre. Running on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 July 2026, the production will bring Mem Fox and Judy Horacek’s beloved children’s book into a live theatrical setting shaped by puppetry, animation and audience participation.
For many families, the story itself needs little introduction. Since its release more than two decades ago, Where Is The Green Sheep? has become part of bedtime routines across Australia – repeated nightly in living rooms, childcare centres and school libraries. Yet on stage, the story appears ready to take on a different texture altogether.
Where Is The Green Sheep Will Transform The Coliseum Theatre
The Coliseum Theatre, with its sweeping auditorium and contemporary interiors, has increasingly become a cultural gathering point for Western Sydney. On school holiday mornings, however, the venue changes character entirely. The foyer fills with children’s voices, ticket stubs crumple into coat pockets, and anticipation settles in before the theatre lights dim.
For Where Is The Green Sheep, audiences will step into a world populated by Blue Sheep, Red Sheep, Bath Sheep and Bed Sheep – familiar characters reimagined through movement, puppetry and projected imagery.
Adapted and directed by Monkey Baa Artistic Director Eva Di Cesare, the production is expected to move fluidly between visual theatre and storytelling, allowing younger audiences to remain immersed without overwhelming them. Rather than relying on rapid spectacle, the show appears designed around rhythm, repetition and discovery – much like the original book itself.
Children will follow three farmers searching for the elusive green sheep, while narration co-created with students from Bankstown West Public School brings local voices directly into the production.
That inclusion gives the performance a distinctly Western Sydney resonance. The children hearing the story in Rooty Hill will also hear reflections of their own communities woven quietly into the stage production.
Where Is The Green Sheep Creates Shared Family Moments
In recent years, live children’s theatre has taken on renewed significance for many families seeking experiences away from screens and digital distraction. Productions like Where Is The Green Sheep offer something slower and more collective: the simple act of sitting together in the same room and responding in real time.
Inside the theatre, moments that may seem small – laughter rippling through the audience, children pointing toward the stage, parents quietly repeating familiar lines – often become the lasting memories.
Monkey Baa’s adaptation appears particularly aware of this shared dynamic. The production reportedly balances gentle humour with sensory detail, inviting children to engage without demanding constant attention or noise.
Visual textures, projected animation and tactile puppetry are expected to create a world that feels close enough to touch. For younger audiences especially, that physical presence matters. Characters emerge directly before them rather than through a device or screen.
As winter sunlight fades outside the theatre foyer, the experience is likely to feel immersive in a distinctly analogue way – rooted in voice, movement and collective imagination.
The Journey Of Where Is The Green Sheep Across Australia
Before arriving in Rooty Hill, Where Is The Green Sheep will already have travelled extensively across Australia through sold-out performances in cities and regional communities alike.
Part of the production’s enduring appeal lies in the simplicity of its premise. The search for the green sheep unfolds through repetition and gentle absurdity, creating anticipation from even the youngest audiences. Yet beneath that simplicity sits something more universal: curiosity, belonging and the comfort of familiar stories retold.
Judy Horacek, co-creator of the original book, has described the theatrical adaptation as remaining true to the spirit of the story while introducing “wonderful new surprises.” Mem Fox has similarly reflected on the production as an extension of the book’s long relationship with Australian families.
For Eva Di Cesare, the adaptation appears grounded in emotional recognition rather than nostalgia alone. Many audience members arriving at the Coliseum Theatre this July will likely be parents who once heard the book read aloud themselves.
Now, they will return with children of their own.
Where Is The Green Sheep Will Bring Winter Warmth To Rooty Hill
By the end of each performance, the theatre foyer will likely fill again with the familiar sounds of school holidays – children recounting favourite sheep, parents gathering coats, families lingering briefly before returning to trains, buses and nearby car parks.
Outside, winter in Western Sydney will continue quietly across Rooty Hill. Afternoon light will settle over Railway Street while the theatre doors close behind the departing audience.
Yet the experience of Where Is The Green Sheep seems designed precisely for these smaller shared moments: a parent laughing unexpectedly beside their child, a familiar line spoken aloud in unison, the comfort of watching a story move from page to stage without losing its gentleness.
In a cultural landscape often driven by scale and distraction, there is something quietly enduring about a production built around one simple question.
Where is the green sheep?
Event Details
Where Is The Green Sheep?
Friday 17 July 2026 at 10am & 12.30pm
Saturday 18 July 2026 at 11am
Coliseum Theatre
Presented by:
Monkey Baa Theatre Company & Coliseum Theatre
Bookings & Information:
Official Event Link