When Props Come to Life

In this adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic,a hand-held battery torch becomes a tunnel while a smiley-faced ball is the girl Alice going down it. Ice trays were taken out of refrigerators to represent tall towers as a blown up Alice hovers over them. Toy autos and aeroplanes too come alive to take the story forward. “It’s not an actors’ theatre. So the actors had to be familiarised with the objects and this form of theatre first,” says Ghosh. Apart from that,actors Rachel D’Souza,Suraj Tomer and Rakhi Prasad and Vikas Jain underwent exercises to stay agile and improve their stamina. That helped them stay on their toes during the show.

One of the hiccups was to find certain products,which were earlier available but have now phased out. For instance,she could not find GI Joe figures in the market. Gradually,she learnt to trust objects lying around her more.

Before Ghosh started picking up objects for this play,she found her mother Ruma Ghosh’s script based on Alice in Wonderland. “This became my route map and the final structure came out of it,” she says. However,she did not share this script with the cast. Instead,she spent a lot of time during their nearly four-month-long preparation period in devising and developing the play with them. Music plays an important role in the play. “Initially,we did not have songs. My father kept telling me that ‘you sing and how come your play does not have songs,’” she says,explaining what made her turn it into a musical.

Object theatre has given Ghosh the feeling of being a complete performer. “I have been on stage since I was three. However,just acting and delivering my lines does not give me artistic fulfilment. I am a performer and acting is just one part of it,” she says.

The Object Theatre practitioner now wants to line up shows of Alice in Wonderland till December. Though she has taken time from the actors,there is one hitch. She was so busy with putting together this production that she has not booked venues yet. Now,she is ready to stage it at all possible venues — in Mumbai and other cities. “After all,that’s the idea behind Object Theatre. We should be able to perform anywhere,” she says.