WHEN actor Jim Adamik won a Canberra Critics Circle award a decade ago for playing Daddy Bear in “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” at the annual ACT Arts Awards, a titter ran around the assembled crowd – but it was no laughing matter.

For Adamik, long rated by me as one of the funniest people on the Canberra stage, had succeeded in creating a role that would appeal to the most neglected part of our theatrical cohort, the very young.

It’s no secret that the play, about to take the stage again at The Q,  is a family affair, co-written by Adamik’ s wife Jordan and father-in-law, Peter Best, Australia’s best known film composer.

It was first staged in 2011 for Centrepiece Theatre as what one reviewer called “a grandfatherly gesture” to the couple’s young son, Will, now a thriving actor and musician.

But that’s all history. “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” was revived successfully at The Q in 2016 well before Jordan became its artistic director, and now it’s on again, as a holiday treat.

Adamik reprises his role –“the greatest Daddy Bear ever” in Jordan’s unbiased opinion, whole Jordan herself directs and plays Mummy Bear, with Jade Breen as Baby Bear, Emily Pogson as Goldilocks and Leisa Keen as pianist .

The 40-minute play has been lovingly created to provide a gentle, unfrightening entertainment for people aged up to eight and is full of full of songs by Grandfather Best, such as “Bear Bottoms”, “I’m Sorry” and  “Your Best Friends Are Bears”.

Although our picture shows Daddy Bear looking distinctly displeased with Goldilocks, the play is predicated on the supposition that bears are very nice people, capable of learning the important lessons that human grown-ups could take a hint from, too, such as how to say “sorry” when you’ve eaten all of someone else’s porridge.

“Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” at The Q, Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, December 15-18. After the show, the cast will meet the children from the audience in the foyer.