In a world created by Krishnakumar Balasubramanian (KK), an emergency has arisen. The fate of the world is hidden in a secret recipe. Hence, five cooks, with their bright red clown noses, spatulas, flying pans and magical flavours with a pinch of music set out to save the world.
This imaginative world will unfold in front of a live audience at the 14th edition of The Little Festival, to be held in the city. This action comedy theatre show, Kooks (Sunny Side Up) by The Little Theatre, will be the Indian representation at the international festival.
The play highlights how social media’s hyper connectivity is resulting in more separation, isolation and loneliness. KK, artistic director at The Little Theatre and the creator of Kooks, shares, “We wanted to create a play on how we sail through these conflicts effectively. We realised nothing brings people together as much as food and cooking. All cultures have food as a central element of bringing people together, and somehow we were able to relate to grandmothers, cooking and families and friends coming together, and that’s how the idea of Kooks was born.”
The play is about to raise its curtain for the fourth time. After three productions, every year, a different director and new cast members are given the opportunity to explore this world filled with clowns. “Every adult has a child in them and art has the ability to reawaken and speak to that child, which is why we started exploring the idea of clowning with this production because we wanted to break across cultures, genders, age groups,” says KK.
The new cast and crew change the play in a certain way. “When you are building a clown production, each actor brings a whole different flavour and a different personality. It is not a character but a clown persona that’s built by the individual actor,” opines KK. "The story becomes a little fresher because it’s a new approach to a new persona," he adds.
This year, Kooks is directed by Praveen Gunasekaran. KK says, “He has brought in a lot of his flavour to the play and we are excited to be able to nurture his talent and see what the production looks like under his leadership.” Because Aysha Rau, managing trustee of The Little Theatre, Chennai, believes, “Art, predominantly, should be entertaining for a child more than a learning. But in this play, there is a subtle meaning. There is a loose thought that we need to work together, be a better team player, to get a good end result.”
On the international front is South Korean theatre, Super Tortoise Super Rabbit, a sequel to Aesop’s well-known fable, The Tortoise and the Rabbit. This play reflects on the question: How do I find the real me?
Selected by Rathi Jafer, director of Inko Centre, this show delivers an important message to ‘Let the tortoise be a tortoise, the rabbit a rabbit and let us cherish both their attributes as two sides of a coin, defining the glorious journey of life.’
Aysha says, “Through this international festival, we create a connection between the child and other countries, to understand the richness of different cultures from different parts of the world and that at the end of the day all the art speak the same language.”
Focussing on the thought, a panel discussion at the festival is on the topic, ‘Art in Conflict’. Aysha says, “I do feel very strongly that the only way of creating more peace and understanding between countries is through the arts. And with the wars going on, I don’t know if we are around the brink of World War III. I hope not. We need to address those issues.” This session is conducted in collaboration with Alliance Française.
Additionally, there are acting workshops scheduled in the festival. “We believe that the entire family will come in and immerse in the joy of theatre,” concludes KK.
The Little Festival is happening from July 6-11 at The Museum Theatre, Egmore. For tickets, visit: thelittletheatre.explara.com