A team of actors that travels with every prop needed for their play in a little trunk: this is what director Vasanth Selvam visualised when he adapted Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s masterpiece The Little Prince to the stage. His adaptation has only two actors, and a silver-coloured trunk that contains the props. “We can stop at any place we wish to with our trunk petti,” says actor Lakshmipriyaa Chandramouli, who, along with actor Maya S Krishnan, forms the team for Kutti Ilavarasan. The play, that was put together in 2019, has now been revived, with actor Vijay Sethupathi, a fan of The Little Prince himself, being one of the main producers.
The 70-minute adaptation in Tamil, titled Kutti Ilavarasan, features a host of string and shadow puppets that play the snake, the fox and the Little Prince, among other characters. “The puppets are over 70 years old, and were once used by a Salem-based troupe,” explains Maya, who has been part of the play from the time it was conceptualised.
