Penny Hunstead, 79, is a quietly spoken botanist and horticulturalist from Sydney’s northern beaches, and Shaun Parker, 52, is a larger-than-life director and choreographer whose dance-theatre production, King, was a hit at WorldPride in March.

The pair became friends about 10 years ago after Parker had approached Hunstead’s husband, Richard, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Sydney, for scientific advice on a show he was creating, called Am I.