JOIN USYoung children upto 10 years of age are having a gala time at the International Theatre Festival ‘16 titled ‘AHA! Theatre for Children’ being organised at Ranga Shankara. While some plays are in English, Hindi and Kannada, there are some that have no language — all playing a wonderful role in keeping the little ones meaningfully entertained.
Kids between 3 to 5 years recently enjoyed an evening of much laughter and mirth with the performance titled ‘Aaipet’ (for iPad). Directed by Rene Geerlings and Bram de Goeij, ‘Aaipet’ was enacted by Dionisio Matias and Michiel Blankwaardt. The duo presented an exciting show filled with movement, magic and music.
They started the play with making balloon animals and performed some magic tricks by pulling bananas out of iPads. It all goes well until the iPad starts misbehaving and the tricks of the magicians go out of control.
Eventually, no one knows who controls whom. Basically, the purpose behind it was to make one think about how smart and self-sufficient they really are if they are always dependent on gadgets. Also, it attempted to make people wonder if technology is making the world bigger or smaller.
However, even as they subtly showcased the theme, the whole idea was to amuse children and the performers kept at it with rib-tickling expressions and hilarious antics like virtually playing balls on iPads, playing instruments, dancing in a funny fashion, interacting with the audience and running around each other playing hide ‘n’ seek.
Shriti S Nath, who accompanied her four-and-a-half year old daughter Kashvi for ‘Aaipet’, said, “This performance had a lot of things that she could relate to — the iPad, ball and balloon. Hide ‘n’ seek is her favourite game and she enjoyed this one the most in the festival. She particularly liked the cute sticker that the performers gave in the end. It has nine buttons including a ‘hug’, ‘music’ and ‘clean’ button that children can stick onto their parents’ clothes and ask for these.”
Another parent, Shruthi Pothnis, said that she liked the way they have incorporated some magic with an electronic gadget in an interesting, contemporary manner.
Arundhati Nag, managing trustee of the theatre, expressed that they didn’t want little ones to be left out from the realm of theatre and wanted them to get a taste of
this refreshing, rejuvenating art.
They even have a performance scheduled for children between 18 and 36 months titled ‘Dinner is at 8’ today at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm. The festival is on till July 24. Tickets are available at Ranga Shankara and on www.bookmyshow.com