I have to sit on a chair. It’s better for my acting.”
These immortal words were spoken by 11-year-old Lakshya, during rehearsals of our latest production, Beyond the Land of Hattamala. Somehow working with kids always gives you a new perspective on your life and work. Their responses are uncluttered and uncomplicated.
“The stage is a place where you can express yourself and be yourself,” says seven-year-old Insha.
Drama for children is on the rise in our city. It is no longer an activity reserved for the hottest months of the year. Many schools have embraced the ancillary benefits that theatre offers, by adding co-curricular workshops as part of their time table. It is heartening to see a rise in the number of organised school trips to watch a play during the year.
Although the summer months are still dedicated to shows and projects for children, very rarely do we get a chance to see kids on stage. And if we ever do, it is usually as part of those mammoth annual day shows, where a thousand children are paraded across the boards, in a procession rather than a performance.
“When you say act, you mean imitate. You need to feel what you do and not just imitate when doing a play,” says Aarushi, 11.
Ever since the success of the Boy Who Stopped Smiling almost 10 years ago, children’s plays in Bombay have been performed in the GRIPS style, where adults play children’s parts. Unfortunately, the more recent GRIPS style shows have often been reduced to adults patronising their young audience by simply portraying imbeciles. There are exceptions of course. Laal Pencil and Kyun Kyun Ladki are wonderful examples of honest portrayals of children.
As a reaction to all this, we launched a project entitled Dramabaazi, which was to work with seven to 12 year olds intensively for five weeks and develop a production. In our initial offering (The Mighty Mirembayanna & The Prisoners of Peace, 2010), it was the kids who were a revelation — disciplined, dedicated and energetic.
This year, we have taken on a Badal Sircar play, Beyond The Land of Hattamala. The story is the journey of two young thieves who find themselves in a strange Utopia, where everything has value but nothing has a price. I am normally quite circumspect about working with kids. But the generosity with which the children approach the play is quite phenomenal. In fact the girls volunteer to cut their hair if it helps the play, in complete contrast to regular adult actor nakras.
Director Abhishek Saha, has an added advantage when working with kids — deep down he is still one himself, not just in his tiny frame, but also in his pixie-like madness. The children seem to find a friend, not a director or teacher. And this makes rehearsals even more collaborative. The children are constantly asked for their inputs, even in costume design, and playwright Aakash Mohimen is constantly reworking the Badal Sircar original to include suggestions and mannerisms from the kids.
But eventually this is a stage production. And the weeks of hard toil will be put to the test when they are confronted with an audience on June 5 and 6 at the hallowed Prithvi Theatre.
As 10-year-old Parmi so succinctly put it: “If no one is listening to you in the audience, you shouldn’t give up.”