It is not easy to hold the attention of some seven or eight year olds through some stories that they might have read. But director Gouri Nilakantan surely knows the trick and she has been working in children theatre since long now. This Saturday Platform for Action in Creative Theatre (PACT), will perform Snakes and Frogs written by Mariam Karim Ahlawat, directed by Gouri at Akshara. “It is a popular story and it will be a workshop-based model. In fact, most of the plays that we do for kids are based on this model so that the child can understand the story and be a part of it. We have been organising a lot of workshops and we also come up with productions for children. I feel that the story can be any story, it has to be interesting and should be enacted well to reach the tiny tots. It is an art to hold their attention and it is only possible when you perform in a certain way,” shared Gouri and adds that for her workshops the child’s age should be between seven to 14 years. “Children of any age can enjoy the play but it is only children aged around seven who can understand the script and the emotions that are related to it,” said the director.
The other play that she has directed and will be staged on Saturday is Vidambana, adapted fromKriti-Vikriti of JN Bordes. “Most of the plays that I do are centered around women, it can be so because I am a female director I can relate to the emotions, issues and problems that we deal with. The play, Vidambana, focusses on modern relationships. It features a scenario when a woman also decides to step out of her home and work and concentrate on her own career. Now going out for a woman surely creates some problems in a relationship as along with concentrating on her career, she is also expected to take care of her family.
It is when woman starts going out that husband realises that he might have done some things, unknowingly while he was busy with the job, that must have made his wife feel like he doesn’t care enough. So them starts an inner conflict, some things are said and some remain unsaid,” explained the director and added that she has made some changes in the original play to make it suitable to the present times. “There have been a number of plays on women. Most of them talk about the problems that women face and present her as someone who is always locked up in home and is expected to take care of family and home. But in modern world, women don’t want to sit at home, they are working. There are not many plays that focus on issues and problems of working women. I like to present realistic things,” commented Gouri, who is also involved in corporate training programmes.
Presently, Gouri is busy reading few scripts and she would start work on her next production soon. “I like doing something that presents the notions of society and also light-hearted comedies,” she ended.