Cover Image: Liisa and Jeromy Nuuk with their child Una, photographed outdoors in a warm family moment. Photo: Rachel Bodenstaff.

Bloom and Wonder – by Hands Some Feet
State Theatre Centre, Rehearsal Room 1
Fringe World Festival, 21^st January 2026

For some little kids, their first engagements with performance art can be scary. The settings are often dark and noisy, overflowing with colour and activity, with strangers in charge – not parents! Certainly for my own toddler, the whole thing can be a big yikes.

Entering the performance space at State Theatre Centre for Bloom and Wonder, it’s immediately apparent that Liisa and Jeremy Nuuk have thought carefully about what babies and toddlers need to feel safe.

The lights are soft, neither dark nor bright. There are cushions on the floor at the front that kids can climb around in and get comfy, as well as some felt leaves they can touch and play with straight away. 

And the Nuuks stand with the practiced ease of seasoned performers, amid the pastel coloured, human-sized flowers that make up the simple set pieces, doing … not particularly anything. Just being two calm, present humans, letting the kids warm up to them and to the space, and laying the necessary groundwork of familiarity that littlies need to enjoy surprises.

It makes sense that the Nuuks are thinking this way. The two met during their studies at Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque (ESAC) in Belgium. The premier circus arts training institute in Europe proposes a view of the arts as social agents that contribute to “the understanding, evolution and transformation of society”. Bloom and Wonder, as well as previous works from the Nuuk’s company Hands Some Feet, enact this philosophy.

The show gets gently underway with a song reminiscent of US anti-folk duo The Moldy Peaches, played on the ukelele by Liisa, who stands on Jeremy’s shoulders as the pair sing. A Yann Tiersen-style solo piano track follows, accompanying a short acro work that sees the Nuuks moving over, under, and around each other, always in contact, always in sync.

The kids get involved soon. Creatures inhabiting the garden (stuffed felt insects attached to a small frame at the end of a bar) float overhead to touch and see up close. Purple ombre silks attached to fans flutter and brush outstretched fingers. A caterpillar marionette gives my sensitive kid the yips, but the Nuuks’ choice to keep it for nearly the end of the performance means most of the others are ready for something slightly unexpected.

A series of mellow clowning vignettes play with sound, an accessible medium for baby and toddler LOLs. A malfunctioning watering can’s gurgles and splutters give the kids a giggle, and the adults chuckle too when two raver bees wearing novelty sunglasses buzz pop song melody quotes to one another.

Although I wondered what a high-energy kid might make of this show, everyone in attendance at this performance lapped up the Nuuks’ easy pacing and lightness of touch. Bloom and Wonder is a deeply considered work that meets its audience respectfully, letting an arts encounter blossom naturally between kids and performers.

Bloom and Wonder is running at Fringe World Festival until Sunday the 1st February. For more information and tickets, visit:
https://fringeworld.com.au/whats-on/bloom-wonder-fw2026