A twist in the fairy tale

Happy Cow’s latest for kids gives an updated version of some age-old stories

In The Greatest Fairytale Ever Told, societal norms of fair being beautiful and the patterns of a princess being saved by a prince (a reflection of rampant gender stereotyping) are being turned around to provide a different perspective to children

A crossover between Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs ? Sounds like something that could set the imagination of any four-year-old alight. That is just what city-based children’s theatre group, Happy Cow (a part of Evam), hopes to achieve with The Greatest Fairytale Ever. The 45-minute interactive play parodies childhood favourites at one of the city’s newest performing spaces, Club Crest, on Sunday.

The script was written by academic dean of Happy Cow and director of the play, John Pradeep, along with the team at Evam Lab. Being their debut original production they focussed on putting together a good cross section of stories from the genre. The group had earlier collaborated with children’s publisher Karadi Tales for musical adaptations of two of their titles, Monkeys and the Cap Seller and Once Upon a Bak-Bak Tree. They also collaborated with Bengaluru-based Jugaad Co to bring The Day the Crayons Quit to the city last month.

In

The Greatest... societal norms of fair being beautiful and the patterns of a princess being saved by a prince (a reflection of rampant gender stereotyping) are being turned around to provide a different perspective to children, says Pradeep, who has more than 10 years of theatre experience. He is also known in the kids entertainment circuit as Jonsense the Clown.

“‘If I

can do it, then I should do it’ — this is the broad theme of the play,” he says, adding that they want children to be motivated to do things themselves, encouraging them to be independent. With music and a sing-along incorporated into the show, the focus is on getting their young audience to interact, think, and come up with ideas.

The outfits too are simple and cost-effective. “We’re using costumes made of everyday objects, nothing too elaborate,” he says, adding, “We created this play keeping in mind that we should be able to perform even without a stage. Because we want to take it to various places, we only have four actors and limited props.”

The Greatest Fairytale Ever

will be staged at Club Crest, Phoenix MarketCity on January 20 at 4 pm. Tickets at ₹250 and ₹350 instamojo.com/evam. 9840236367