WHEN Canberra writer-director, Greg Lissaman tried his latest play, “Rolling Home,” out on a group of young local children today, he got exactly the reaction he wanted—they simply loved the nasty onstage troll. “A bit scary,” as Lissaman says and, from my perspective, a bit of a smartypants too.

Actually it’s veteran Canberra performer Chrissie Shaw inside the troll putting on a troll- like voice, but elsewhere she plays roving gypsy Figaro, with an Italian accent while her counterpart, Catherine Hagerty, plays the home-loving gypsy, Georgio, with a Russian accent.

It’s all good fun, set on a fantasy set that conjures up an ideal home, one very different from the one the gypsies normally inhabit. And that’s part of the play – what is a real home? Is it in bricks, mortar, clay, brick or, more likely, in the mind and the imagination?

“Rolling Home,” advertised as a “magical musical adventure for children by Canberra’s own,” is the brainchild of Lissaman, a former Artist of the Year and long-time former director of Jigsaw Theatre Company, and he’s made sure to engage the top talent in town for work of this kind.

John Shortis has written the music, Catherine Roach of Company Skylark fame, is puppetry director Imogen Keen and Hilary Talbot are designers, Kimmo Vennonen  sound designer, with Matt Cox as lighting designer.

Lissaman has been lying low for several years since joining the staff of old Parliament House and the Museum of Australian Democracy but now, armed with a grant from artsACT, he’s formed his own independent performance group,  negotiated support for the show and eventually tied up a deal with both the Canberra Theatre and the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta and taken five weeks’ leave to do the show.

I often complain that children are short-changed when it comes to theatre, but you can’t level that accusation at Lissaman’s company of home-grown experts. They’re bound to challenge the imagination

“Rolling Home,” at the Courtyard Studio, Canberra Theatre Centre, September 17-22.Canberr aaudiences are invited to meet the cast of “Rolling Home” in a “Q&A” after each performance.

Bookings to 6275 2700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au