4 Stars from The Arts Desk

Lounge Room Confabulators ★★★★

Imagine that Tim Burton, or some other great modern-day storyteller of your choice, knocks at your door and asks if he can come into your living room for an hour to tell some fantastical stories. You would get some beers in and friends around pronto, right? Well, the Lounge Room Confabulators, a duo from Australia who tell stories in the Burton style of weird and dark, do just that – turn up on your doorstep and then perform in your front room, your garden or your office, wherever you have space for 10 or more people.

It starts with a rug called Keith, who is due respect, for he provides the stage for Stuart Bowden and Will Greenway, a pair of Australian troubadours who enter with an old-fashioned suitcase full of tales and funny little props, including tiny figurines and miniature gardens and houses.

The duo tell us they are two brothers of a dead mother, and with the aid of said props, guitar and ukulele, tell tales, tall and short - about two brothers trapped down a well, a woman seeking a cure for her husband's illness, a farting possum and a man-eating mouse. They are by turns funny, touching, macabre and ridiculous, and if you loved being read to as a child or storytelling hour at school, this is for you. Until 29 August

Written by Veronica Lee