Date: 19th March 2018
Venue: Abhimanch, NSD

“Across the sea” – the puppet play at NSD’s Theatre Olympics ( is “Ice Age” meets “Madagascar” on stage.

The theatre festival is a melange of plays in all possible genres – from comedy to tragedy – from nouveau experiments to traditional nautanki – from song and dance based musicals to non verbal plays. We managed to watch a multitude of styles in this theatre extravaganza this year. “Across the sea“, directed by Anurupa Roy was probably the first puppet play we watched in this festival.

It’s the journey of a baby penguin from Antartica to Africa and how he comes back to his parents… to a place where he belongs. During this journey he made several friends who helped him to reunite with his parents . If you are thinking of “finding Nemo” or “Finding Dory” well we don’t blame you… the story line has stark similarities. In fact the whole play seems to be inspired by many famous animation films. Starting from “Happy Feet” to, as we mentioned in the beginning, “Ice Age” (woolly mammals), “Madagascar” and “Finding Nemo“.

The nice part was that this was through puppets where puppeteers were not hiding behind a curtain. Though a lot of experiments are being done with puppet theatre of late and the technique is used to tell complex stories as well – but here director Anurupa Roy stuck to the time tested, cute, made-for-kids genre of puppet theatre. Which was nice, given that the kids in the auditorium were having a great time. But if the show targeted at kids, the week evening 8.30 pm slot was not the best suited for sure.

The puppets were well made and the play was definitely a fun watch. That said If the director had focused more on bringing out emotions rather than just giggles through puppet, this would have been a master piece. Still not complaining. “Across the sea” may not be very fresh or unique but definitely a Fun-Do puppet play.