Sophia Lovell Smith is the designer, and part of the Polka Theatre team, setting up shop in Centre Court Shopping Centre with a new pop-up theatre space for Maanika and The Wolf.
Created and directed by Polka’s own Artistic Director Peter Glanville, Maanika and The Wolf is a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, perfect for 3-6 year olds.
Designer Sophia Lovell Smith has used evocative fabrics and toys to bring to life the cultural heritage of the toy box and Maanika’s parents’ Indian upbringing. Maanika and The Wolf is at Centre Court Shopping Centre 29th July to 29th August. Tickets are on sale here.
You’re designing Maanika and The Wolf, tell us a little about the play?
Maanika and The Wolf is a contemporary interpretation of The Little Red Riding Hood Story. The old tale has so much to offer – a journey with gifts, fear and dark woods, freedom to walk on your own and meet furry beasts, family relationships between young and older female characters.
I remember as a child the freedoms gradually given to go out on your own, first to the village shop, then the local bus and finally into a shopping mall! Stepping stones into the bigger world. We set this old tale in our protagonist’s childhood bedroom. Our granny, Maanika is returning to her past, reliving memories through the contents of her toy box, handling toys redolent with past bedtime storytelling times and like memories stories incrementally shift and realign themselves.
We are looking at an old fairy tale that continues to offer interpretation, like our own personal life stories do. And to top it all here’s an exciting opportunity to make live theatre, every time our story is told it is the first time for the audience. It is LIVE culture!
And what’s the reason behind performing it in a pop-up space?
Stories are happening all the time, butting up beside one another and here’s an old story in a new guise, popping up in a shopping mall! Our Red Riding Hood’s wood is a little like our urban shopping environment, temptation at every turn, we hope to take advantage of people passing by out shopping who might encounter live theatre with their daily mix of shopping and hanging out for a coffee. Straying from the path is advised!
How did you react when you found out what you would need to do?
Delighted. I love fairytales and they continue to provoke new interpretations. We set our tale in the present day, between India and the UK giving this much-loved story a modern twist, exploring the ever important relationship between grandmother and granddaughter. I was brought up partly by my Granny and she feels here!
What challenges does designing a play performed in a shopping centre present you?
Making theatre in a shopping mall immediately gives us freedoms – we can transform the space to our wishes. We are in new territory and the woods are looking good!
What have you found to be most rewarding about designing Maanika and The Wolf?
I loved the initial research prior to making the design – reading past interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood, finding images that excite me – Indian toys and bedroom furnishings, making Indian quilts and camels, elephants, monkeys and of course our Big Bad Wolf!
What would you say to anyone thinking of coming to see Maanika and The Wolf?
Beware the creatures in the wood! Come and see Maanika open her childhood toy box and hear her story – a little girl on a journey into the woods….
