Funday Times

The Piper’s Street
By Ishani Ranasinghe
We are all familiar with the story of the Pied Piper. We have read it and seen it on television. We now have the opportunity to see it on stage. The junior students of Claire De Silva will perform “The Piper’s Street” an adaptation based on the traditional tale made famous by Robert Browning. Having a production every two years with her students, this year too she will bring to the audience three dramas. The first half of the production will be the juniors play while the second half will be two one act plays performed by her senior students (see Mirror Magazine for more details on the seniors play)

Walking into one of the evening practices I see a very enthusiastic and noisy bunch of kids hard at practice. With almost seventy-five kids taking part, the eldest is about 14 years while the youngest is just four years old. But that really does not stop her from being very much involved in the play; she plays her part as one of the rats with absolute perfection.

The story line of this forty-five minute long play is very simple and direct. “It is basically a story within a story,” says Claire De Silva the directress of the production. There are two narrators who keep the audience informed of what is happening on stage and in the end giving out the morale of the play,

”when you borrow something from someone you have to give it back and then everyone will be happy.” Speaking about her young cast Claire says that they are very much dedicated to their acting. “They are in a sense breaking free after the hectic exams they had to go through.” This has also been a learning experience to the cast. “They are wearing period costumes hence there had been a lot of questions.”

Pied Piper will go on the boards at the Bishops College Auditorium on October 16 and 17 from 7.30 p.m. onwards. The main sponsor is Hands International while the media sponsors for this are Art TV and The Sunday Times.

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