Life lessons from shadow puppets

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: What could be the best medium to tell the tale of a relationship between a boy and a tree? After watching the performance Kalpataru: The Wishing Tree most of you would be convinced that shadow art and puppets are the best ways to

do so.

The captivating performance based on American litterateur Shel Silversteins’s book The Giving Tree was staged at Russian Cultural Centre, Kamalpokhari on August 31.

The performance put forth by Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust all the way from India and directed by Dadi Pudumjee was definitely a show to watch — a visual show without many words and the spectators present equally enjoyed each moment there who ranged from young children to dignitaries to actors including Rajesh Hamal and Anup Baral.

The performance started with a boy (MD Shameem) talking to his friend tree. The tree and the boy both are small in the beginning who later grow up. With their growth the desire and selfishness increases in the boy while the tree is ready to sacrifice its life to give happiness to its ‘dear’ friend.

There was a white curtain in the centre of the stage and all the action took place in front and behind of the curtain. To give the impression of water, boat, tree, house, fish, colourful leaves, animals like giraffe, tiger et cetera, the theatre group had made use of objects like paper-cut outs, wire, cloth, sand and so on. And these simple objects created larger than life images that reflected development of any incident, longing for something, nostalgia among others. Introducing Ishara, Pudumjee before the show started had said, “It is a contemporary puppet theatre that started working with shadow images.” One could get the feel of contemporariness in this show that has interpreted the story of Silverstein through use of shadow images, puppets, actors as well as music.

Shameem along with Pawan Waghmare, Vivek Kumar and Kumari Yadav executed their parts be it while acting or projecting the shadow images using halogen light very well.

Introducing Pudumjee “as the pioneer of bringing new direction in puppet theatre in India”, Dr Geeti Sen, Director of Indian Cultural Centre (ICC) informed that it was his first time in Nepal. The event has been organised

by ICC.

Hamal who had also been eagerly waiting for the performance to begin shared, “As a child I was totally fascinated with puppetry and it was a source of entertainment then. But today it has become a universal language and effective medium to represent social and culture issues.”

The play will be staged

at Kathmandu University premises, Dhulikhel

on Septemebr 2 at 4:00 pm.