Facing the fear factor

City theatre group Rafiki, brings on stage a bilingual play The Fabulous Adventures of Aditi and Friends for kids that shows how friendship transcends barriers

Facing the fear factor

City theatre group Rafiki, brings on stage a bilingual play The Fabulous Adventures of Aditi and Friends for kids that shows how friendship transcends barriers

City-based theatre group Rafiki believes fear in children should be done away with. And this week, the group brings on stage the play in English and Kannada The Fabulous Adventures of Aditi and Friends to ensure that children abolish fear and learn to live happily with others.

Based on a series titled Aditi Adventures penned by Indian poet and author Suniti Namjoshi, this bilingual play is directed by Anish Victor. Shree Lakshmi, who plays the central character of Aditi informs that the play brings out the loneliness that children between the ages of 9 to 12 years often face. However, she stresses that the play is dedicated to children yet it has a universal appeal. She says, "The idea is to show how to make friends with different people. The play talks about how there is no age bar in friendship."

The Fabulous Adventures of Aditi and Friends revolves around the life of nine year-old Aditi, who has been given to a dragon by her grandparents to fulfill certain promises. Shree Lakshmi describes Aditi as a calm but lonely child, who in the course of the play meet a one-eyed monkey with a desire to explore the world, an ant, who wants to measure the world and an elephant who wants to be angry. Soon a friendship develops between them and together they learn to deal with physical pain, hardships and the true meaning of friendship. However, all these characters are played by adults.

Explaining how months of research went behind the presentation of Aditi's character on stage, Shree Lakshmi admits, "It is fun to be in the shoes of someone younger and to live her thoughts. It is almost like going back to when I was of her age. We went through various exercises involving our childhood and trying to identify who was our dragon."

Ravindra Jain, who plays the dragon in the play, describes the character as the metaphor for any fear that confronts us and shows us how to confront it. There are 12 books in the original series but episodes from each have been taken for The Fabulous Adventures of Aditi and Friends. Ravindra informs that paper masks, puppets and eco friendly LED lamps that change colour to add to the intimate tone of the performance. Also, according to Ravindara, the performer alternates between playing themselves and the characters to help kids relate better. However, he cautions that Rafiki considers children as intelligent audience and thus does not take extra efforts to tone down the theatrical aspects.u00a0

"It is always more effective when you interact with children the way you normally speak. We do not try to mollycoddle them as it appears stupid. We have tried not to dumb down the play unnecessarily," says Ravindra.

Where KK Foundation and Public Charitable Trust, Off Cunningham Road
On from July 11 to 28, 10.30 am and 1 pm (School Shows)
On July 17 and 24, 3.30 pm
Call 9886474674
Foru00a0Rs 100 for all shows