Overwhelming indeed!
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It was fun with strings attached, literally. ROMESH CHANDER gives an insight into the Third Ishara International Theatre Festival that concluded in New Delhi recently.
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"Billy Goat's Gruff" by the Irish Group.
THE JUST-concluded Third Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival produced by Teamwork Production in New Delhi hosted drama companies from Ireland, Scotland, Spain and India . As the festival overlapped with National School of Drama's Bharat Rang Mahotsav, it was not possible for this critic to see most of the presentations. But what one saw, the experience was indeed rewarding.
One of the most innovative puppet shows that one saw was "Animals" from Spain directed by Pablo Vergne with Soriano Enriquer and Albo Vergne. The director himself enacts stories of animals using toys, animated objects and puppets made of recycled material and utensils of daily use. As the properties took shape and came to life, children shouted and screamed with laughter and the adults admiredPablo's skill . The little puppy when angry, barks with anger and when happy, barks as it , turns into a giggle. Then of course, there were scores of other small creatures like frogs that croak and tortoise that crawl. However, the actor/puppeteer transformed the dead materials into an animated work of animals whose forms, colours, sound, rhythms and movements draw different scenic scores that captivated and amazed the audience, both young and old.
The 40-minute long show, besides being playful and humorous, was poetical in a simple language with short sentences that children love. Using a range of animal sounds, rhythms and movements and music, Pablo Vergne brings to us "music for the eyes and painting for the bearing" and a game between diverse elements that sets in motion intellectual, emotional and aesthetic experience.
"Animals" by the Spanish group featured at the Ishara International Puppet Theatre Festival in New Delhi recently.
Irish presentation
"Billy Goat's Gruff and the Walrus Story", presented by Your Man's Puppets from Ireland, was directed and performed by Tommy Baker. It was yet another presentation where a variety of puppets and styles like strings and rods were used. It was yet another story that was lapped up by children between 5-8 years. The reason was obvious; the children were familiar with the story that came to life for them.The first Billy goat comes on the stage and looks at the grassy fields, and says, "I'm hungry; I am going over the bridge to eat the grass." Trip trap, Trip trap. Trip trap while she walks over the bridge to the green grass fields; up jumps the Troll. "I am going to eat you up" as he tries to catch the Billy goat.
Since most children in the audience knew the story, there was a lot of spontaneous participation, as it should be in a children's play.
"The Enchantment", presented by The Puppet Lab, Scotland, with shadow puppets was based on the Shakespeare's classic, The Tempest. It was an excellent example of introducing Shakespeare to older children. No wonder many of the young ones left half way through or even earlier. The organisers should have taken care of that and publicised that the play was not for children below 14-15 years, who may have at least heard of the Bard's name. But from what one saw of the play, one felt that the adaptation was excellent. In about 30 minutes, the director had given the gist of the story and introduced most of the characters and also created the locales and the atmosphere.
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