From Roysten Abel’s A Hundred Charmers
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Bejewelled howdahs on stately elephants, ornately patterned flying carpets and the simple snake charmer with his commonplace basket housing terrifying cargo. India of yore had a romance that has since faded into fables, but one can catch an echo of that past with Roysten Abel’s A Hundred Charmers, which will be staged in Bengaluru onJuly 26.The musical which debuted in 2014, features 100 snake charmers performing classic and contemporary tunes on the been, the traditional wind instrument of their profession crafted out of a hollowed-out gourd and bamboo reeds.According to Roysten, the idea for this show grew out of a conversation with Bahar Dutt, journalist and environmental activist. “Bahar was closely associated with Friends of Snakes, an NGO, and worked with charmers who were left unemployed when their snakes were taken away to be rehabilitated. Given their skills, she was trying to get them jobs at zoos, snake parks and places where they could utilise their knowledge of antivenom.”Since Roysten was always collaborating with out-of-work street performers, jugglers, acrobats and magicians, Bahar asked if he could do a play with snake charmers to get their message across. “While I wasn’t sure about casting them in a play, I was quite taken by their instrument, the been. Bahar asked me to meet the snake charmers in Molarbandh, a village in Delhi.”
