Finding rainbow in the dark
ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
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Rainbow Fish was an interesting production with a simple story line.
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PHOTO: S. THANTHONI
WATERY LESSON: Fishy tales.
First impressions: It was as if we were at the bottom of the sea, the air conditioning of the hall intensifying the cold.
Beauty and pride
Ultra Violet light and black light theatre techniques were used in the play "Rainbow Fish" based on the book by Marcus Pfister, which was held recently at the Chinmaya Heritage Centre. One streak of light would kill the play, as it would reveal the actors dressed in all black. The principle of black light theatre is that the eye cannot distinguish between black on black. The audience cannot see an actor dressed in black against a black background. Props operated by actors in black move independently before our very eyes. Inanimate objects come "alive".
And so we had a whole school of fish darting about, trying to tell their tail, sorry tale. The theme was simple enough — that pride doth go before a fall. Here was the garishly "beautiful" rainbow fish that loses all its friends because of its vain and selfish ways but the tale does end on a "they lived happily ever after" note when the vain fish repents. Zingy, singable, hummable songs take the story along, though the puns and play on words were lost on the little ones. Singapore based "I theatre's" "Rainbow Fish" organised by the Indigo Kids Edutainment and the Madras Mylapore Ladies Circle No. 4, brought together a show that was unique, in light and sound.
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