Celebrating childhood
Theatre artists from Seoul enthralled children with their performance, as part of Tifli.
Most children don’t have very long attention spans. But recently, a group of three theatre artists with a bunch of socks, paper, clothespins, and other such everyday objects kept kids engaged, even as they let out hearty giggles. The artists — Song Inhyun, Lee Mihee and Kim Hyejin from Seoul, South Korea, were in Hyderabad on Wednesday to stage a play, The Bird, as part of Tifli, the third International Children’s Theatre Festival. The play had a simple story line — a crane’s search for her new friend’s mother.
The festival, taking place at the Golden Threshold over three days is organised by ASSITEJ, a network of people working in the field of theatre for young audiences. Actor Tanikella Bharani, who was the chief guest, said that he was taken back to his childhood days. One would think that a South Korean theatre group would find it hard to communicate with children in India, but they played on the instincts and emotions of the children. There was no language used; only vocal sounds, soft instrumental music, and a lot of enthusiastic acting. Adults also enjoyed the show. Song, the director, explains why children find object theatre so interesting. “When I am portraying a bird, they already know that it is not real. So, instead of making a realistic one, if you make it out of objects that you find easily, there is scope for children to imagine,” says Song.