A PAIR OF WINGS I WISH FOR
I believe in Magic. It makes me happy to see the light glowing in the eyes of people when they witness it. It happened for me when I was thirteen years old and watched a play at my school. My eyes sparkled looking at the colourful costumes and hearing the vibrant dialogue. The light that glittered in my eyes that day still guides my life today.
With the onset of increased extremism, war and a global pandemic I now see days getting darker, eyes losing their light and hope disappearing. As an artist my job is to remind the world that there is more light to come – that we can even generate that light from our soul when we dare to be ourselves. After seeing these themes expressed in, “Hope for the Flowers” by Trina Paulus, I wrote, “A Pair of Wings I Wish For” to bring this story to life. “A Pair of Wings I Wish For” is the second in a series of children’s plays I am creating called Magic Carpet and The Trunk Box.
– Vasanth Selvam (April 2022)
Based on the book, “Hope for the Flowers” by Trina Paulus, the play “A Pair of Wings I Wish For” explores the lives of two caterpillars, “Stripe” and “Yellow”. In the story millions of caterpillars climb up a pillar that disappears into the clouds. The higher you go, the more difficult it is to progress, you must crush others to advance. Stripe meets Yellow in the middle of this struggle. Tired of this rat race, they decide to live a simple life by leaving the pillar and returning to ground.
For some time they live happily together in love. One day, unable to control it’s excitement to see what is on top of the pillar, Stripe abandons Yellow and joins the race of climbing once more. Yellow refuses to join Stripe, instead it wanders alone and meets a cocoon. The cocoon shares the secret of becoming a butterfly to Yellow.
What is that secret? Did Yellow and Stripe become butterflies? Did they fall in love with each other again?
Based on the story ‘Hope for the Flowers’
By Trina Paulus
Directed by : Vasanth Selvam
Performed by : Maya S Krishnan, Keerthi Pandian (In Tamil)
Siddanth Sundar, Snigdha Prabakar (In English)
Performers participated in the creation :
Solange Dias, Ann Jameela
Art Direction : Vasudevan A
Set Designer : Joseph Bernard
Produced by : Neelam Cultural Center, Silk Route Theatre
Co-Produced by : Shoonya Cultural Centre
Past performaces :
Tamil Version premiered on June 2022 at Music Academy, Chennai
English Version premiered on January 2023 at Shoonya Cultural Centre, Bangalore