“KOAL”  begins with the sound of a powerful wind and the crackle of an ominous fire. Inspired by the “Black Summer” wildfires in Australia in 2019, Jacinta Yelland’s solo show this weekend evoked the horror happening right now in Los Angeles, even as the performer used an engaging storybook sensibility and physical playfulness to suggest the specific devastation that occurred years ago and many thousands of miles away. 

Yelland first portrays a young girl who delights at the flora and fauna around a gnarly old tree in the bush (paper flowers and paper snakes around a couple of ladders encased in papier-mâché.) The girl is performed in mime, accompanied by cheerful music. But soon we meet a chatty adult in an outback hat, a staffer at the Australian Wildlife Relief Sanctuary, who welcomes us exuberantly, makes light of the troubling signs of encroaching crisis, and introduces us to the most memorable character in the hour-long show, a baby koala. This koala twitches, chitters and nibbles convincingly. She isn’t shy,  poking her snouted and furry-eared face right up against several theatergoers. This is one of the several ways that Yelland interacts with the audience.  

 We later meet a coal miner and a schoolteacher.  Each eventually must confront the immediate effects of climate change, each reportedly rooted in the real-life circumstances (especially the koala.)  

The biggest downside to “KOAL” is that Yelland performed it for just two nights, as part of the second annual PhysFestNYC. But “KOAL” had gigs previously in New York, Philadelphia and Australia, and it surely will return somewhere soon. Unfortunately, it won’t stop being well-timed.