I sat and listened to a dialogue between a mature adult and her very young audience. A dialogue in gibberish. Riddled with meaninglessness for the mature, 'sensible' adult. And then I realised that 30-odd toddlers, hovering around the age bracket of one-and-a-half and three, were sitting mesmerised and responding instinctively to those absurd noises. It made me wonder whether those young, impressionable minds may not have a much better understanding of intuitive communication, something the process of growing up has robbed us of.
The tiny tots were watching a play.
They were at Ranga Shankara, not creating a ruckus, only pottering about once in a while for a better view of actors, Jule Kracht and Jörg Fischer. Did you just say, a theatre performance for 20-month-olds, that too something that holds their attention, is inconceivable? Not quite.
Ask the members of Schnawwl Theatre, a German group who brought 'The Great Lalula' to town as part of Ranga Shankara and Britannia's AHA! children's theatre festival, and they will tell you.
Anne from Schnawwl says that even the "very small ones" have the right to take part in what is aesthetic and cultural in society and so, they thought of making the theatre experience more inclusive, reaching out to toddlers. 'The Great Lalula', directed by Marcela Herrera and Nicole Libnau, involved intense research for two years before such theatre could take shape. The members visited kindergartens to study child behaviour. They had to understand infant psychology and "find themes and games toddlers are interested in and then, create a theatre pedagogic and an artwork theatre production".
Using Christian Morgenstern's 100-year-old nonsense poem, Schnawwl came up with a unique theatrical experience for little ones. "This poem has a good sound that great for theatre. The research also involved work with Dadaist artists to know about languages," says Anne.
The kids get to sit on the stage, and can almost touch the funnily, very colourfully dressed actors. And when the artistes start speaking a lingo that only they can fathom -- mumbles, laughter, jabber, weird noises and wordplay -- their day is made.
When the actors went "Bifzi, bafzi, hulalemi... laloooooooolaa...", one could hear tiny voices in the auditorium, making conversation on similar terms with them. As they repeated phrases, sang and frolicked about, the toddlers became part of the action. "La, Lu," they responded.
"The play evokes curiosity about words, how they sound, what colour they are and how to play with them. 'Theatre From the Very Beginning' project is not only about addressing a very young audience but also about rediscovering theatre in its original form," say the directors.
The only props are utensils, sand and a bucket, and the music the artistes make out of them -- 'choo choo' of a train, tunes to which they sing 'lalula', background score et all -- can get anyone hooked. For the kids, it is the universe they love to be in, represented in a more glorified way.
Anne says, "There are two different sides of our project. One, creating a professional play for toddlers and second, developing games and theatre pedagogic for and with toddlers - little presentations in a warm and known atmosphere can take place too."
I asked two-year-old Aliya, who was busy playing with the props, about her experience. "Naaaice!" When she looked up with imploring eyes to ask, "No popcorn?" I realised how important it was for them to have come to an experience removed from the usual television and movie-going ones. It was 'naaaice', when, forgetting the popcorn, she turned back and said, "Lalu!!"
Shatarupa Chaudhuri
shatarupa@epmltd.com
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