There’s nothing quite like a revival interval of 16 years to make you feel plenty old. This Neil Armfield-directed staging of The Book of Everything had its memorable first run in 2010. Happily, it’s wearing the passing years a lot better than I am.

Rushed into Belvoir’s 2026 season after the programmed production of an adaptation of Craig Silvey’s novel Runt was cancelled in the wake of his arrest, this production – originally co-produced with Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image – plugs a gap with an immensely likeable work of warmth, wit and wisdom.

The Book of Everything. Photo © Brett Boardman

The story (adapted from Dutch author Guus Kuijer’s novella by Richard Tulloch) revolves around nine-year-old Thomas Klopper, a bright and dreamy kid growing up in post-war Amsterdam, where the trauma of Nazi occupation is still fresh in people’s minds.

Finding solace in fantasies inspired by his staunchly religious father’s nightly Old Testament readings, Thomas sees things that no one seems to notice: freak hailstorms; tropical fish swimming in the canals; a plague of frogs. These he records all his observations in a notebook – his Book of Everything.

Thomas also has an imaginary friend and confidant in Jesus – yes, that Jesus – whose easygoing nature contrasts sharply with the brand of Christianity espoused by a father, who thinks beating his wife and children can only bring them closer to God. 

Thomas knows he must confront his father but how? With guidance from next-door neighbour Mrs van Amersfoort (Julie Forsythe), a war widow who quickly divines the boy’s needs and nature, he finds the courage to speak to power.

Rebecca Massey and Matthew Whittet in The Book of Everything. Photo © Brett Boardman

Several of the original cast are present, not least Matthew Whittet, whose portrayal of Thomas is one of wide-eyed candour and goofy physical detail.

He’s surrounded by delightful performances from first-season veterans Claire Jones (playing Thomas’s mother), Julie Forsyth (slyly hilarious as Mrs van Amersfoort) and John Leary, whose slacker Jesus offers a chilled rebuttal to the stern version of his teachings delivered by Thomas’s father.

John Gaden and Matthew Whittet in The Book of Everything. Photo © Brett Boardman

Joining the cast for this season, Rebecca Massey is pure perky insolence as Margot, Thomas’s older sister; Bridie McKim is charm as Eliza, the teenaged apple of Thomas’s eye. Pam Rabe’s Auntie Pie shows the way for all women fighting to wear the trousers, and John Gaden is pitch-perfect as the grim-visaged patriarch (and pretty good as the mad neighbourhood dog, “the bum-biter”)

Nostalgia may play a part in your experience. It did in mine, I confess. But here at least, this second encounter lined up pretty much perfectly with my memories of the first. As it was in 2010, so it remains. The Book of Everything is a big warm hug of a show, full of deft theatrical touches and calculated mischief.

The Book of Everything plays at Belvoir, Surry Hills, Sydney until 20 September.