Little Red Chunni

This delightful and unusual cross cultural production in partnership with Indian dance company, beeja, is a partially bilingual version of the story Little Red Cap by the Brothers Grimm. It involves dramatised storytelling, Baratanatyam dance and mrdangam playing. It is a highly colourful, magical show full of surprises and with much audience participation.

The show was initially devised for the Jaipur International Heritage Festival where we were sponsored by Step by Step High School to run workshops for two hundred children culminating in a public performance. Children from Akshara slum school were also included. The workshops culminated in a public performance that opened the festival, with students from both schools, aged from nine to sixteen, performing alongside the artists. Others took part in the participatory sections with the audience.

The aim was to introduce the children to a range of new and imaginative ways of storytelling by blending traditional and contemporary methods, and to develop their language, creative and performing skills.

Then came our highly successful tour of primary schools in Suffolk, followed by a week of performances in the Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh in the Jill Freud children’s summer theatre season.