The Fairy Tale of Peter, Poussy and the Evil Mask – a moment of transformation.

It was the first time practicing their story in drama form all the way through...

The plan of Peter and his friends to thwart the villain Shahir was to have Poussy, their cat, slip under the door while Shahir was sleeping, flick the evil mask off with his paw and escape with it out the window.  The two boys playing the “door” and the “window” moved quickly and proudly into place; the masked Shahir fell asleep, tired from ruining the good work of the Peter’s team.  The little boy “cat” moved quickly through the legs of the “door”, snatched the evil mask from Shahir’s face in a nano-second and leaped out the four-armed “window”.  The children on and off the stage erupted in spontaneous applause.  The adults felt chills! This was the transformational moment of the camp – a first dry run rehearsal of a play the children had just orally written.  But this moment would not be repeated with the next rehearsals or the performance to come on Wednesday, the last day of the camp.  The magic was in this time when a cat, on behalf of his friends, turned evil into good, and allowed Shahir to be reconciled to Peter.  The students knew something great had happened, and that they were a part of it.  It was as if it was purging all the bad from each of them in one cathartic gesture.  Forgiveness occurred and they went on together doing good forever.  The play didn’t start out this way.

Asked what we might write a story about – something about their lives – the students offered themes about a bad person on the street.  Asked how to stop that person from doing bad things, answers of graphic violence came:  beat him up, kill him, throw him where the fish swim, spear him.  These answers come from children who live with violence on the street and who have escaped from war torn countries like Sudan that train them to kill.  “What else can we do that is not violent or physical?”  Their imaginations began to work.  They introduced a mask that makes him do bad things; maybe tie him up.  What if the rope doesn’t hold?  Drop a net on him from a airplane.  What if the net breaks?  Ahhhhh.  Get the mask!  What happens when the mask come off?  He turns good.  With that suggestion from the children, the process of playwrighting succeeded in facilitated the transformation of their minds in the symbol of a fairytale.

This week in Cairo, the arts are helping children remove the evil masks inside that burden them.  If this isn’t hope, we don’t know what is.

The full Fairytale will be available soon.

Vivian