Odyssey 24 is the name of the festival; there’s a new Odyssey every two years (though the last one was online, because of Covid), and this year the theme is.. hmm, something about modernity (it’s got a slightly snappier title, but only slightly.)
First, about the school, and the venue. City Montessori School is officially (Guinness Book of Records) the largest school in the world: about 78,000. Though actually I think they are… well let’s say bending the rules. They are gradually taking over schools in Lucknow, giving them a CMS title and branding, calling them another campus, and adding those numbers to the total. I expect the schools get a good bit out of it: funding, equipment, training, prestige, whatever, but they’re all very different. So more like a family of schools, or like an academy chain back home.
Anyway, Campus 1, where the festival is based, is undoubtedly huge and impressive. The whole front building is actually an extremely well-equipped conference centre (and not like schools in England, which pitifully try to pitch themselves as such, while still being grubby schools. A few years ago, CMS hosted a conference for Chief Justices from all over the world. And then you go round the back, and there’s another enormous building, which is the actual school, with lush playing fields (a bit like an English public school) stretching out beyond.
The building has a huge auditorium, with enormous video screens – three across the stage, one on either side of the stage, another at the back of the auditorium. And out front, there is a rather extraordinary series of statues, made of papier-mache, I think; brightly coloured (though fading), which depict various aspects of political and social life. They are absolutely charming, naïve, and ever so slightly tacky, all at the same time. And they are starting to deteriorate, which I reckon will give the place a problem in due course.
Breakfast was first priority, served in the basement dining hall. I was directed to the VIP section, and at first tried to demur, thinking to sit with the group, but then, faced with a somewhat chaotic queue, I acceded to their repeated requests – “Please sir, this way.” Same food, far less hassle.
And a good breakfast too, very much reminding me of travelling days, with a mix of local and western foods to choose from: hard-boiled eggs, bananas, sliced cheese, bread, cartons of juice, tea or coffee. And corn flakes, served with hot milk, in little cardboard cups the same as individual ice-cream tubs!
And then onto the competitions. First off was a “theme board”, with each school having to present a display board about modern poetry. Most schools (ours included) were frantically trying to put their display together, with paper and scissors, glue, even in some cases gold spray paint. (There was to be a lot of last-minute panic throughout the festival, I was to discover.)
There were some remarkable displays, with 3-d elements, much imaginative and clever art-work – mirrors, little cupboards, “documents” with burnt edges. In comparison, ours was naïve, simple… but actually saying much more. Another theme of the festival, I was to discover, the priority of presentation over content.
And of course CMS had a huge advantage. Since they didn’t have to transport their displays, or more than a few miles at least, they could be, and obviously had been, prepared well in advance. And that’s another thing that only occurs to me now. If CMS is one school, how come they entered all the competitions as individual campuses – 43 schools had entered in total, but fifteen of them were CMS.
The only other major event of the day was the opening ceremony, which started at about three, and went on for several hours; you can watch it if you want, for it was live-streamed on You Tube. (I’d give you a link, if I knew how – look it up: search CMS Lucknow, Odyssey.) It was a bit Olympic opening ceremony-like – a parade of the various schools, in traditional dress (some amazingly spectacular), which could present a short dance or song if they chose – again, some were remarkable, most notably a group from Sri Lanka.
Then there were speeches, lots of speeches. I started with our group, discovered I was immediately behind the video camera, moved to sit and chat with some other Nepalese, and then was spotted and ushered forward to sit on the comfy settees which formed the front row. Where we were fed and watered throughout; everyone else had to wait until the whole thing was over.
The event was enlivened by four huge set-piece performances, with enormous numbers of participants to fill the massive stage: dance numbers with fantastic costumes (form over content, once again.)
The first was a complicated concept, emphasising the universality of mankind, using the colours of the rainbow in turn, (with matched costumes) to represent the continents. I know, a difficult match, especially when they left out Antarctica, but India had its own slot, and the UK – well, England – had a slot to itself! We’re a continent! There’s the colonial legacy for you. (I think we were green, by the way.)
And when all the colours came together at the end – yes, there had been seven separate casts – it really was utterly extraordinary, a truly memorable theatrical experience.
I’ll have to summarise the other performances, or this will go on and on. The junior section of CMS presented a version of “Frozen”, which looked wonderful (I can’t keep going on about the costumes – just take that as read from here on.) Except it was entirely lip-synched to clips from the movie soundtrack. Understandable, but it ain’t art.
Another huge set-piece, with separate sections coming together at the end, presented a series of dances based on books. I can’t remember them all, but included Sherlock Holmes and Life of Pi (my favourite), plus much that was unintentionally hilarious (I had to suppress my giggles on many occasions.
And finally the same sort of thing with the continents, but with all the major religions. Each one was beautifully presented – they had clearly been rehearsed to within an inch of their lives – and generally very respectful, though again, I had to suppress my amusement at the sight of Indian children swinging crucifixes around. It included Humanism, to my surprise, but not Judaism. Hmm.
And it was done, and everyone could eat (even me – crisps and sweets do not a meal make.) Then bed, with thought of the next day to come, with the competitions for drama and choir. CMS had shown itself off; next it was everyone else’s turn.
