Children’s theatre festival returns after two-year hiatus

Falah Faisal | NT
Bengaluru

The past two years have been a struggle for children who were confined to their homes, not allowed to meet their friends, or went outside to explore the arts. Now that the world is slowly opening up, and the pandemic seems to be plateauing, Ranga Shankara is taking the opportunity to bring theatre practitioners together to create a festival celebrating children and children’s theatre.

Among the plays on display are Ee Gida, A Mara which translates from Kannada to This Plant, That Tree. The play explores the two and magnifies the micro environments they house through movement, visuals, and sound. The play is largely nonverbal, with sporadic use of Kannada, English, and Hindi words.

Next up is Sag Mal, a non-verbal dance theatre performance from Germany. In an arty-playful manner, the dance theatre piece tries to find out whether we actually need language to be able to communicate and what happens if two people talk to one another in two different languages.

This will be followed by the Jonathan Swift’s classic Gulliver’s Travels. It follows Gulliver as he gets washed over the shores of the land of Lilliput by a sea storm and is captured by the Lilliputs. He is at first a prisoner, and despite his huge power of being a giant, he is very nurturing to the Lilliput and how he negotiates for his freedom. It’s not a love story but a story of love.

All the way from South Korea comes The Story of the Lake which tells the story of Dae-Su, a kid sacrificed to save his village from flooding after a dam burst. And lastly, there will be Minor Matters from Switzerland which is a story of departure, desires, hopes, and disappointments.

Together with the audience, the narrator lets a farm emerge where once lived a farmer. He thought there was something missing, so calm and orderly ran his life from morning to night. So he goes to his town on a Saturday evening where he meets the woman of his heart.

When he starts a family with her, happiness seems perfect. But just as the idyll originates from nothingness, it finally breaks down again. The festival will not only feature plays but also seminars, workshops, and activities for not only children, but also parents, teachers, and anyone interested in children’s theatre. This is one you don’t want to miss.

Where: Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar
When: June 26-30, 5:30
Tickets: Rs 200