Hyderabad: When the itinerary for the Children’s Theatre Festival in Hyderabad had the play Romeo and Juliet No Strings Attached, people were intrigued.
A play of romance, desolation and loss for children? But after watching the staging by Bengaluru group, Tahatto, it became evident that it wasn’t just about romance or suicide. The play was in fact based on “how a choice makes the difference in a person’s life”.
Prashanth Nair, the writer and director says, “This is the first time we are staging Romeo and Juliet for children. We did change 30-40 per cent of the script. We had to keep in mind the impatience of our young audience and also the fact that they wouldn’t be interested in a few issues.”
Talking about how choices make one’s destiny, the play makes it very obvious when the character of Panauti asks the audience what would happen if Juliet fell in love with him and would not die.
“We had the tough task of taking Shakespeare’s play to kids, so we filled the script with a lot of film references and Indian sensibilities as well,” adds Prashanth.
And the high point for the kids was when Panauti, played by Anshul Pathak, sung a song from a Tollywood movie.
