Thiruvananthapuram: Two-year-olds are not allowed in the hallowed halls of renowned theatre complexes like ‘Prithivi Theatre’ in Mumbai. Not even if it is a children’s play. But the play ‘Oopicassoo’ has been written for toddlers. Now, that is a statement which is usually met with raised eyebrows. Even in Munster, the city in Germany where the play was written. The theatre director, Julia Hesse, a member of Munster Theatre for Young Audiences, says that the first time when she suggested the idea, there were many frowns.
“The children are not going to remember anything when they grow up, they would tell me. Before that there were just five theatre companies in Germany which had experimented with theatre for toddlers. The idea is not more than a decade old. Five years ago, prominent German theatre festivals like ‘Augenblick Mal!’ had no slot for toddlers,” she says.
The play ‘Oopicassoo’ “carries the spirit of Picasso”, she says. But what would a toddler get from a play inspired by Picasso? “It is not meant for educational purposes. I don’t want them to get anything,” she says. Picasso, she says, would not divide the world into right and wrong. “He was the child of a painter, who was strict and insisted that Picasso learnt art the right way. It was a narrow-minded perspective which Picasso fought against all his life. He would invent one style of art, leave it, take up something else, leave it…I was inspired by this,” she says.
Oh, and one more detail – the language of the play is in Arabic, French and Spanish. The words are as foreign to German children as it is to Indian children. Julia says the play relies on the melody of these languages. The stage with nothing but grey coloured boxes was designed by Kristopher Kempf. When put together it looks like a home with furniture. Julia chose the design as Picasso worked with such simple forms as triangles and squares to create masterpieces.
The actors Linn Sanders and Manuel Herwig will fill the space with paintings – some by Picasso. They will also be painting part of the story. “They would be watching with eyes and mouth wide open, if they like it,” says Manuel. The performance at Co-bank Auditorium on Wednesday evening will be attended by kindergarten students though. “We performed for children of that age in Chennai, and it worked as well,” says Julia.
