The solo performance of Swiss mime artist Marcus Schmid at Urban Haat struck a chord with adults and children alike
An effective combination of expressions and gestures, music and images makes a short and simple story enriching. This is what the audience witnessed when Swiss mime artist Marcus Schmid staged 'The Man who Planted Trees' at Urban Haat on the evening of April 4.
Organised by Helen O' Grady International, Navi Mumbai, a chunk of the audience was parents and children of the after-school drama programme. This programme, through dramatics, aims at developing communication, creativity, collaboration and confidence in the children.
Marcus, along with his wife Marie (narrator) and sons Felix and Leo, has travelled across countries to spread the word about efforts to assuage the universal problem of water scarcity and deforestation. On Friday, his brother Christiano and friend Hugo backed the performance with live background music that kept the audience captivated.
Also, known as the 'The Story of Elzeard Bouffier' and 'The Man who Planted Hope and Reaped Happiness' the plot revolves around a shepherd's single-handed and successful endeavour to convert a barren land in Alps into a dense forest.
The performance also conveyed the fruits of perseverance and hard work. It begins with the narrator, a young man hiking through Alps in 1910, who runs out of water in a dry and deserted valley. Saved by Bouffier who leads him to a water source, the young man stays with him seeing him plant acorns in an attempt to replace the barren land with lush greenery.
The narrator returns years later depressed by the First World War, to find peace in the valley that is now filled with thick foliage.
Starting the performance as the young man, Marcus transforms into the shepherd by wearing a mask; body bent, head down with the mask facing the audience as he plants the acorns. The cheerful background tune realistically conveying the shepherd's happy state of mind.
Marcus' vigourous but carefully measured movements and pronounced expressions were the soul of the performance. The interplay of music, objects used as props and reflections presented the story in detail. The narrator after seeing the misery humans inflict on each other during the war develops an admiration for humanity by looking at the shepherd's efforts.
Weaving the story that spans over 30 years, the enactment ends with the imagery of people inhabiting the valley that is a now a verdant haven.
The underlying meanings that are conveyed through this story are also of "having dreams and the determination to realise them," says Marcus Schmid, adding that as his wife is a Biologist, it was their dream to take the message of safeguarding the environment far and wide.
"In different countries we have performed in different settings; social, environmental, cultural and educational. While in Peru the rural culture was dominant, in Brazil we performed in hilly areas and jungles. In India, the educational context is more important and thus we have taken the message largely to schools," adds the 45-year-old.
Since their arrival in India in January this year, the Schmids have travelled to places in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengalooru, Nagpur, among others. Till the end of May, they will stage more performances in Odisha, New Delhi and Indore.
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