A Mumbaikar is currently exploring tree life in Bengaluru, particularly the ones at the Lalbagh Botanical Garden. Observing  leaves, seed pods, beehives, ants, nests, bugs and fungi is not part of a city walk she generally enjoys. But the educator-director Sananda Mukhopadhyaya, 34, is sourcing material for her fifth play, Ee Gida, Aa Mara (Kannada title translates to This Plant, That Tree) to be mounted today evening at Aha! International Children’s Theatre Festival 2022.  After two debut shows in Bengaluru, each booked by 30 toddlers and 30 caregivers, the play will be performed in Pune on July 1 and thereafter, in Mumbai post monsoon.

For those who have followed Mukhopadhyaya’s theatre for early years, and also tracked her Mumbai Overstory-A Tree Walk, the new venture ties in well with her vision of trees “as a community of city dwellers, migrants in a mega city”.  With both parents as biologists, the artiste’s childhood in tree-laden Trombay brought an extraordinary induction into the sylvan outdoors and treks to the forts and peaks of the Sahyadri range. Her interest in ecology and nature conservation runs as a constant theme in her varied work, be it the first two plays exploring textile and wool (Warp and Weft, and Ool) or the booklet Peer Ponder Play, which guides children to make sense of their environment using artistic tools.