These days, Ranga Shankara is witness to a unique form of interaction between the stage, the actors and the audience - an honest and unhindered kind. There are no rules anymore. The audience can become actors. The actors could turn into the audience. And, who says, one cannot sit, stand, run and watch a play at the same time?
Jokes apart, the credit for blurring the lines around the proscenium and making interactive theatre possible would go to the children that frequent Ranga Shankara these days to attend the ongoing Aha! International Theatre Festival for Children. And, by making theatre available to children, Ranga Shankara is indeed hosting a laudable initiative.
“Please switch off your cell phone Ma’am,” said a little boy as I took my seat to watch ‘The Umbrella Thief’ on the second day of the festival. His diligent persuasion was hard to resist. After ensuring that all the mobile phone wielding adults had put their gadgets away, the little boy took his seat in the audience along with other children and watched the stage with rapt attention.
Power of Play, a two member troupe from Sri Lanka presented ‘The Umbrella Thief’, a popular children’s story authored by veteran Sri Lankan writer Sybil Wettesinghe. The play was directed by Sulochana Dissanayake. The story is about how Kirimama, a milk man from a village called Kosgama goes to Colombo and discovers the umbrella for the first time. After learning of its use, he decides that he would buy one for his wife. He brings the umbrella safely to Kosgama only to have it stolen when he leaves it outside his friend's coffee shop. Kirimama then goes back to Colombo to buy another umbrella determined to gift it to his wife. But as soon as he reaches Kosgama, he promptly leaves it outside the coffee shop again and somebody steals it again. This happens repeatedly and Kirimama is at a loss as to who the umbrella thief is. And it is hard to describe the umbrella to other people in the village considering no one has ever seen an umbrella in their lives! At this point, the troupe threw the play open to its audience and asked the children to help find the thief. Suggestions poured in immediately. “Kirimama should carry his umbrella with him everywhere. So careless he is!” said one child. “He can leave it outside the shop and then watch it closely to spot the thief,” said another. A classic example of interactive theatre, 'The Umbrella Thief' knew how to integrate the actor, the play and its audience. Children were invited to be a part of the act itself: either pretending to be the umbrella sellers or the villagers of Kosgama. And as impromptu actors, the children were just a fascinating sight.
The next day, Manetsangsahwa from South Korea presented ‘Puppet Fantasy, Hooray!’, a combination of acts that displayed the puppeteer’s skills. Opening with a mime performance, the team then presented a range of puppetry from a flower dance to hip-hop by a grandfather puppet. At the end of the performance, children were invited to handle the puppets and were taught to make them dance too.
The atmosphere at the festival was heart-warming and as theatre exponent, Padmavati Rao said to the audience, “Watching plays may not increase your bank balance but you will definitely be rich in your heart and mind- a millionaire in that respect!” One wishes Ranga Shankara had invited children from all walks of life — especially the under-privileged - to be a part of such a festival. After all, the benefits of wholesome theatre cannot be restricted to a few.
