In a fast moving world filled with illusions and fabrications, a group of 17 children were ready, not to sit back and watch but to express and bring to light their rendition of how the world brazenly sits today.
None of the performers were professionals. They were drawn from a month-long camp conducted jointly by Abhinaya Theatre Group and Chilla, a roosting home for children of sex workers and other deprived sections. Trained under the watchful eyes of Abhinaya founder D. Raghoothaman, Munshi-fame Baiju, V.K. Sreenivas, Jijo, Gopika, Arul, and Vaisakh as part of Chilla’s Centre for Life Skill Education (CLSE) , the children presented the audience gathered at the Lenin Balavati in the city on Thursday evening with their seemingly quirky but deeply thought-provoking take on the life in the mainstream.
Titled Mirage , the play was an anthology of five short satirical plays, scripted and performed by the children attending the camp, on what they have perceived to be the state of the world today.
Impeccable execution
Despite choosing difficult themes, the children performed with immense maturity and remained unnerved at each stage of the drama.
Greed for wealth and fortune, growing apathy towards human relations, and actions motivated by emotions rather than thinking were some of the themes highlighted through the course of the play.
The crew succeeded in unravelling a story filled with humour, sadness, and anger, in just under 30 minutes.
Apart from the drama, they also screened an in-house production, a socially relevant four-minute short film named Ku ka Cri , which stands for Kuttikkali alla Cricket or ‘Cricket isn’t child’s play’, which takes a sharp jab at the gender bias and stereotypes that surround women in our society.
The preproduction, production, and post-production credits were all done by the children on stage — Aswathi, Asha, Amal, Alamelu, Ardra, Surya, Rahul, Hareesh, Abhijith, Abhilash, Aswin, Siddharth, Ananthu, and Anjana — and were ably supported by programme curator Vishnuhari, lightsman Jijo, and make-up artists Athul and Akshay.
“The experience was truly unique. I have been a participant of the camp in all its three editions. I have made new friends, gained more self-confidence, and learnt many things that would not be taught in my school,” said Siddharth A., a participant of the camp and director of the short film Ku ka Cri .
Allen Roy Joseph
