Wanting to help kids between the ages of three and eight break societal stereotypes, they came up a parody to every fairytale ever written, called The Greatest Fairytale Ever.

The play’s director, John Pradeep, tells us about the concept. “We felt the best way to convey a message to children is through humour, thus was born the idea of doing this parody. At a workshop, my team and I dug up and found common elements from these stories that we could take and weave into a play,” he says.

 

The show is about 45 minutes in duration and deals with two concepts. “The first is to change stereotypes that beauty is defined by skin colour or that every girl needs someone to save her. The second message we’re trying to convey is that ‘if you can, you should’.

Children learn various activities while they’re growing up, for instance opening the door or eating on their own. We’re trying to educate kids and their parents that if the child can perform an activity or task on their own, then they should without relying on someone else for help,” adds Cinthoorika, who heads the education division of Evam.

 

John says, “At the end of the play, the children and the actors will sing a song about all the activities that the kids can do, right from bathing on their own to dressing up. We have added some elements for the parents too, who will be present.” Some of the famous characters the audience will get to see include princes and princesses, an evil witch, Goldilocks, the big bad wolf and so on.

Cinthoorika shares, “We’ve spun these characters into a plot that a child can relate to, while creating a completely original storyline. The four actors who will take turns donning different avatars were already a part of Evam.”

Saadiya Ali, who is one of the actors, plays the role of the evil witch. “One of the reasons I was happy to be part of this production is because children’s plays are inherently fun. 

As for my character, I really enjoy playing the witch, partly because it’s the most fun character — I get to be obnoxious — and mostly because as a ‘Potter’head, it feels awesome to call myself a witch,” she signs off.