The magic of Scheherazade and her cliffhangers came alive for kids on Saturday as Indigo Kids, a kids’ edutainment company staged the play ‘Arabian Nights’, in association with the Wonder Years Play School. With stomach-hurting humour and colourful dancing including a bit of Gangnam style, the Arabian Nights included the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin.
The Persian king has banished his wife to the Mountain of Fear because he couldn’t stand her and is now looking to marry a new wife every evening whom he will banish the next day. He is aided by camel trader Rafi (Shashank D), his two dancing camels Abra (Yoyen Mistry) and Dabra (Kaustubh Kumar) and the grand vizier Vizi (Hitesh Maulukani) who cannot speak English. They despair of ever finding a bride for the king when Vizi’s daughter Shazi (Manjari Rupale) convinces them that she would marry the king, thus setting off the tale of ‘One thousand and one nights’.
Shazi starts off by telling the king the story of Ali Baba and keeps him hanging on her every word each morning when he is supposedly banishing her. She continues with the story of Aladdin, thus making the king fall in love with her.
The stars of the play were clearly the camels, who seemed to dance, yell, sneak about and generally make a fool of themselves at the lightest touch. They seemed to be a favourite with the kids too. Vizi, the grand vizier who cannot speak English was hilarious in his efforts to stalk around for a bride for the king.
The main focus of the play, though, seemed as much on helping the kids learn and have fun along the way as it was on story telling. The actors interacted with the kids as often as possible, sometimes inviting the children along on the stage for an impromptu dancing session. Dipesh Jain, one of the founders of the Wonder Years Play School, said that the play was put up keeping in mind the learning process of the kids. “Kids learn better through visual medium, so we thought this would be a good way to go.”
While the children got to learn about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves last year, Indigo Kids’ next production will be Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. with Mowgli, Baloo the bear and Bagheera the panther, the kids can expect some jungly fun next year.