No childs play

When popular theatre face Krishnakumar (KK) began a story about a poor couple in a village far, far, far away, and his associate Abishek Joseph George meekly added “At Harrington Road”, the kids who gathered to celebrate World International Children’s Theatre Day on Saturday, giggled their little hearts out. The rest of the crew from Chennai-based theatre group Little Theatre and accompanying parents looked puzzled, wondering what they really were giggling about, but as KK and the gang continued Grimm’s fairytale of the Devil with the Three Golden Hairs, it was becoming more and more evident – kids these days know much more than we think they do.And the story went on as the actors enacted it, mostly through role-play. The poor couple is blessed with a boy with a white mask, who is prophesied to marry the king’s daughter, the princess. On hearing this, a very angry king buys the couple off with gold and silver, and lets the baby boy float away in a river. A fisherman finds him and brings him up with his wife. The rest of the story centres around how the king traces the boy back, tries to get him killed, but sends him off on an impossible task when his plan fails, and how in the end, the boy tricks the king and ends up with the princess. All characters in the story were played by only three actors — KK, Abishek and Mrithula Chetlur, and the only way to differentiate them was through what headgear they were wearing (feathers for fisherfolk, crown for king and a one-eyed mask for the Cyclops, who the boy encounters, at one stage and so on). And because of this, one might think that the kids might not get the story straight, especially since they all seemed to know KK a little too well, but they got every bit of it, maybe even a little too well. As KK held up the three golden hairs of Satan that he was required to bring back to the king to be able to marry his daughter, one eager kid yelled, “But that is white, not golden!” With straightforward dialogues interspersed with everyday kids words in both Tamil and English, non-fancy costumes and props and acting that made some of the kids cling on to their mothers, especially in the scenes when Satan made an appearance, the show was a hit. Mrithula and KK, might have struck a chord with the kids, but it was Abishek, with his snide comments and spontaneity, who really left a mark.