Breaking gender stereotypes with theatre

Theatre group Samahaara in collaboration with 'Kites and Nini Pins' recently staged a play titled 'Cinderella's Sangeet' as part of weekend theatre group at Phoenix Arena, Hitec City.

The play is about the stereotypes and binaries that are seen in the Disney stories, where the princess is a damsel in distress.

She is cursed by a witch for either being too beautiful or too sweet and rescued by a prince.

In this play, the characters start questioning their characterisation and fix the problematic endings of each of their stories.

It uses historical figures like Queen Elizabeth of the 15th century and the great scientist Marie Curie to initiate the dialogue among the princesses and the witch.

It gives a new perspective to the actions of the witch and the step-mother we see in the Disney stories.

It also enables the princes to vent out how they are trapped in their own image of being a rescuer and heir to their kingdom and how their characterisation lacks no other dimension.

The script of the play was lyrical and poetic ala Disney musical films.

The process of the play involved a lot of brainstorming on understanding the individual characters deeper.

Children in the workshop played a major role in devising the play.

"The workshop started on the January 26 and ended with the performance on the March 10, two days after the International Women's day. We wanted to use this opportunity to discuss gender stereotypes and address them in the play. Apart from the theatre exercises, the workshop had constant discussions on developing the plot of the story," says the director of the play Pallavi Banothu, who has a Master of Performance Arts degree in theatre from UoH.

The script was penned by Deepthi Krishna Thota, a PhD research at UoH. She is currently working on 'Representing Urban Exclusions: A Critical Reading of Films on Hyderabad'.