This highly acclaimed and brilliantly devised production shows us life behind the swinging doors and beige walls of a nursing home. Theatre Kantanka, with its visual and physical performance style, brings beauty, humanity, and much hilarity to this little-known and hidden universe.

Missing the Bus to David Jones is a finely observed contemporary work that fuses text, physicality, new media and sound to create a surreal world. As baby boomers grapple with the dilemmas of ageing parents, this heartfelt and uplifting production finds celebration where you might least expect it.

Meet the residents, staff and visitors and come on a dreamlike adventure, where day to day rituals give way to moments of spirited abandon. Yes there’s walking frames and super sized bibs. But there’s also candy floss, balloons, and dancing – and bingo! And a lot of kindness.

Missing the Bus to David Jones was developed by Theatre Kantanka through a series of residencies in nursing homes across Sydney in 2008. They came face to face with the daily routines of those living in care. In many ways there was a common response to the ensemble being there. The people the performers met, often vulnerable and institutionalized, came alive when their stories were listened to.

Kantanka immersed themselves in a world that is at times brutal, sad, sometimes humorous and above all, very human. This world provided a space for reflection, on the nature of ageing, and on what it is to be human.

Missing the Bus to David Jones is an interdisciplinary performance engaging cross-cultural artists from diverse backgrounds and art forms. It was devised by the original cast – Valerie Berry, Kym Vercoe, Arky Michael, Katia Molino, Rosie Lalevich and Phillip Mills. The multi-media work of Joanne Saad and the lighting design of Sydney Bouhaniche enhance the surreal landscape of the piece, together with a soundscape by Nick Wishart. Director Carlos Gomes fuses these elements with sensitivity and precision to create a haunting visual and physical performance.

In 2009 Missing the Bus to David Jones was received with an astonishing outpouring of positive reactions, by audience and critics alike. It returned in 2011 for a limited season at the Seymour Centre, during NSW Seniors Week.

“These [nursing] homes might be considered the unlikeliest place to find celebration or solace but in Carlos Gomes’s production, they contain the meaning to life… one of the most celebratory pieces of theatre you will encounter.” The Sun Herald