Guest Blog: Shamser Sinha On THREE SAT UNDER THE BANYAN TREE

Three Sat Under The Banyan Tree is a story about three orphans, unrelated by blood, who have fled a king and escaped across the Himalayan mountains to arrive in a forest, by a banyan tree, with a book they were told to read.

Their adopted dad is dead. They are alone. This book happens to be an ancient set of tales from India called The Panchatantra. The play, like the actual book, is not a morality tale in the sense of European children's stories. It's a morality tale in the sense of you choosing the path that is for you. Particularly relevant if there are no adults about, or adults are not behaving as adults should.

In that sense, the story is thoroughly modern - if we see how children seeking asylum are handled by the authorities, the way children are excluded from school, the way their imaginations are limited by a narrow, culturally limited school curriculum and adults closing down libraries. Children need to think beyond that which we're showing them.

When the children arrive in the forest, three stories unfold from the book. They are Tarabai the Crow, The Mongoose, and The Tiger. The children, and I guess us, choose what we think the moral is, and whether we buy it.

The Panchatantra seems written as political allegory, as much as a set of tales for children. Its use of animals, and the way we've brought them to life in a fantastical world, with rhythm, word and song, is designed to affect, move, and provoke. Somehow, the magic of the story, even by its very fantasy, is meant to be more resonant with us and life.

I worked with many children and young people seeking asylum and other vulnerable children and young adults. In research - I have a PhD in Sociology - in community and youth work, and in drama. Stories are sometimes - only sometimes - told about these children. And even then they're told from the vantage point of 'Look how hard their lives are', 'This was their journey' and 'Isn't it awful what they go through'. This is important.

However, this tale is different, and is about their resilience, what they do now, and their fight for a better life. Maybe we can learn from this about how to negotiate an adult world, where who is 'right', and who is 'wrong' is uncertain. And let's have a great time while doing it. The words! The beat! The animals! The stories!

Three Sat Under The Banyan Tree at Polka Theatre until 21 October