‘The Little Prince’ as a pandemic parable
Skeptical Oakville director pulls off online play spanning continents
I’ve just seen an amazing international production of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s classic children’s story “The Little Prince.”
Of course, it’s one of those children’s stories that is appreciated even more by adults because they understand fully its darker underpinnings.
This story, now labelled “a pandemic parable” by some, has been given a glorious international, production that uses actors forced to perform their roles in isolation, some as near to us as Dundas, some across the world in Mumbai, Darjeeling, and Kolkata, India.
At the artistic helm of this triumph is Oakville director Dia Frid (well known to Hamilton audiences for her work here in community theatre).
Frid has miraculously created unity in a cast that has never met, except through virtual connection. More than that, she has fashioned from a compelling, but not always easily accessible story, a production that actually finds strength in imposed distancing. She has found the often dark, sometimes humorous, poetic resonances that give this Saint-Exupery’s story its power.
Sumit Lai Roy, a founding member of The Red Curtain theatre in Kolkata, reached out to Frid and asked her to direct his international production. He knew Frid was immersed in children’s theatre in Dundas where she directs FridKids productions. Always an adventurer in theatre, Frid said yes.
‘‘Each day of rehearsal was an adventure and a technological feat,” Frid says. “A cyclone wreaked havoc in Kolkata as we were rehearsing, internet connections were down, power outages were rampant, locusts swarmed in Mumbai. And through it all our indomitable producer Sumit rallied us all together. Love prevailed.”
And that’s what this production was all about. Love for theatre and determination to make something that would speak to the heart.
Frid auditioned and cast her actors from her home in Oakville. She directed their performances from her little office den. And when the show went out live, she played the role of The Aviator from a tiny room in her home.
The amazing thing is when you watch the production, though you know these actors haven’t walked in the same space and said their lines face to face, there is a feeling they are communicating totally.
Technically, the production is excellent, moving seamlessly from actor to actor. Snatches of music from Toronto vocalist Meredith Busteed help to marry scenes together and Kolkata designer Priyanjali Pal’s wistful drawings amplify the vocal colours of the play’s delicate poetry. “The most daunting thing about doing this project was my own closed-mindedness to the possibilities,” Frid says. “My doubts were in the esthetics of it. E-plays are neither fish nor fowl in my eyes. Yet, the difficulties kind of melted away because all I could see was the potential of pioneering in a new medium. I could revel in the fact that Zoom was a reality in everyone’s life and that this was an opportunity to reflect ‘All the world’s a stage.’ ”
“Each of the first rehearsals were a one-on-one with each cast member. We created a working vocabulary. For Avinash Rai, who plays The Little Prince, English is a second language. All others were fluent in English. That was a help. Also I made it personal right from the very start and because I was acting as The Aviator, that immediately helped everyone realize my learning curve was alongside theirs. The stage manager, Rebecca Johns and I, always catered to each actor’s personal itinerary. They all felt their needs were being accommodated and respected,” she says.
“What you cannot achieve is control. And that I found to be a profound revelation. We cannot control our lives. Only our responses to it. I’ve known that intellectually all my life, but sidestepped accepting it. In live theatre you can prepare and prepare and aim for perfection but it only happens in each show for a minute, if you’re lucky. Well, hello reality, e-plays make you know for damn sure you can only hope and try and then it’s ‘Qué Será, Será.’”
This story and doing it as an e-play reflects exactly why it is a pandemic parable. We are apart. We are not alone. We are learning willy-nilly that we need to become our best selves. And that we need to keep connected by any means possible. We are learning to ‘See rightly.’ ”
For future performances in June, go to sites.google.com/ view/the- red-curtain shows.