Fairy tales with a moral twist

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Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsWatching a bunch of rats run around on stage may not sound like fun time. But the Pied Piper that was staged on Monday at YMCA as part of the Indo-German Urban Mela definitely caught people’s attention. Created by students of MOP Vaishnav College with an original script adapted from the German fable, the performance had an element of dark comedy and ample doses of live music and dance to strike a balance.Vidyu Raman did a wonderful job as the frustrated Pied Piper who is tired with the pettiness of the hundreds of rats (metaphoric to human beings) who ruin land because of their selfishness. The play weaves in scenes familiar to youngsters in Chennai such as a beach clean up campaign gone wrong by hypocritical volunteers, farmer suicides and police brutality. They even took a dig at the country’s political set up with ministers refusing to go to the opening of a new railway station unless Katrina Kaif made an appearance. In the end, as one would expect, all the rats fall to their deaths and a colourfully-dressed piper has made the land a good place to live in again.Despite a good performance, there were a number of empty chairs, possibly given the fact that this was staged on a working Monday. The Pied Piper and the play that followed, Scandal in Fairyland were both organised by Crea-Shakthi, formerly Masquerade Youth Theatre (MYT).Round two of theatre was lighter and definitely had frequent doses of comic relief. This was also put together in a street theatre format with no props, no costume changes and much of the focus on the ‘chorus’ rather than a lead character. An interesting point to note was that the characters of Fairyland were all dressed in black infused costume ribbons of red and yellow (colours of the German flag) to symbolise the Indo-German celebration.The story begins with whispers of an ogre on the loose, hyped even further by a local newspaper. There is Prince Thunderbolt (Aishwarya Gopalakrishnan) who keeps the ogre at bay, a King (Rudra Nathan) who is eager for Thunderbolt to marry his daughter – so that he doesn’t have to lose a substantial portion of his wealth and a scheming Midas Speculateroti (Vaibhav Srinivas) who has just cooked up the whole tale of the ogre just to sell newspapers. In the end, it turns out that the ogre is all of four feet. Also, he likes bread and butter. With a smattering of Tamil and Hindi and animated acting, it was an enjoyable ride all the way up to happily ever after.first published:August 29, 2012, 07:57 ISTlast updated:August 29, 2012, 07:57 IST
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Watching a bunch of rats run around on stage may not sound like fun time. But the Pied Piper that was staged on Monday at YMCA as part of the Indo-German Urban Mela definitely caught people’s attention. Created by students of MOP Vaishnav College with an original script adapted from the German fable, the performance had an element of dark comedy and ample doses of live music and dance to strike a balance.

Vidyu Raman did a wonderful job as the frustrated Pied Piper who is tired with the pettiness of the hundreds of rats (metaphoric to human beings) who ruin land because of their selfishness. The play weaves in scenes familiar to youngsters in Chennai such as a beach clean up campaign gone wrong by hypocritical volunteers, farmer suicides and police brutality. They even took a dig at the country’s political set up with ministers refusing to go to the opening of a new railway station unless Katrina Kaif made an appearance. In the end, as one would expect, all the rats fall to their deaths and a colourfully-dressed piper has made the land a good place to live in again.

Despite a good performance, there were a number of empty chairs, possibly given the fact that this was staged on a working Monday. The Pied Piper and the play that followed, Scandal in Fairyland were both organised by Crea-Shakthi, formerly Masquerade Youth Theatre (MYT).

Round two of theatre was lighter and definitely had frequent doses of comic relief. This was also put together in a street theatre format with no props, no costume changes and much of the focus on the ‘chorus’ rather than a lead character. An interesting point to note was that the characters of Fairyland were all dressed in black infused costume ribbons of red and yellow (colours of the German flag) to symbolise the Indo-German celebration.

The story begins with whispers of an ogre on the loose, hyped even further by a local newspaper. There is Prince Thunderbolt (Aishwarya Gopalakrishnan) who keeps the ogre at bay, a King (Rudra Nathan) who is eager for Thunderbolt to marry his daughter – so that he doesn’t have to lose a substantial portion of his wealth and a scheming Midas Speculateroti (Vaibhav Srinivas) who has just cooked up the whole tale of the ogre just to sell newspapers. In the end, it turns out that the ogre is all of four feet. Also, he likes bread and butter. With a smattering of Tamil and Hindi and animated acting, it was an enjoyable ride all the way up to happily ever after.