June 21, 2007
A Princess born from fire accepts her mission on earth: to provoke an apocalyptic war in this epic dramatisation of the poem ‘Mahabarata’. The company uses Kathak classical Indian dance as the medium to stage this piece of ancient Indian scripture. Pirouettes are performed in swirling circles and bare feet are tapped in choreographer Gauri Sharma Tripathi’s rousing line formations, all in time to the live percussion. Nitin Sawhney’s mystical musical arrangement lifts the audience through the journey with spiritual woodwind tones to accompany the deep words of Krishna’s insightful narration. The show provides a visual feast of colour as drapes of red, gold and orange float in the background and puppets and stilt walkers come to the fore.
Writer Stephen Clark has adapted the 100,000 verses to tell the story based on the journey of enlightenment simply through an unfolding sequence of tales. Each part of the story heralds a sumptuous costume change, such as the warm gold tones of silks worn when one of Princess Draupadi’s five husbands loses her in a game of dice. Natasha Jayetileke portrays the beautiful Draupadi who is both feminine and feminist, questioning the unfairness of her treatment at the hands of the hateful Duryodhana, the man who has won her through the use of weighted dice. A war breaks out between Draupadi's five brothers has as the husbands seek vengeance. The dramatic fight choreography with spears is enthralling and includes a few Bollywood style mannerisms. However, the delivery and pace of the solo vocals are in the style of contemporary musical theatre as Draupadi sings the line ‘Where is the man that I love?’. Subtle references are included by Stuart Wood’s direction so that audience members more familiar with the layers of this Religious piece will be satisfied with a deeper story telling.
The charismatic Krishna (Gary Pillai), with pale blue face and yellow tunic stands on the stage, set against Angela Davies’ bold abstract set design of a large metallic curved wave sculpture. The moon descends and light fades but Krishna seems to shine out and a sense of achievement to have witnessed the complete story telling of one of the longest poem in English language pervades. This is not the end it is the beginning, for Krishna has encouraged Draupadi to break the revenge cycle. As Krishna says with a twinkle in his eye, ‘You think enlightenment is easy!’
Writer Stephen Clark has adapted the 100,000 verses to tell the story based on the journey of enlightenment simply through an unfolding sequence of tales. Each part of the story heralds a sumptuous costume change, such as the warm gold tones of silks worn when one of Princess Draupadi’s five husbands loses her in a game of dice. Natasha Jayetileke portrays the beautiful Draupadi who is both feminine and feminist, questioning the unfairness of her treatment at the hands of the hateful Duryodhana, the man who has won her through the use of weighted dice. A war breaks out between Draupadi's five brothers has as the husbands seek vengeance. The dramatic fight choreography with spears is enthralling and includes a few Bollywood style mannerisms. However, the delivery and pace of the solo vocals are in the style of contemporary musical theatre as Draupadi sings the line ‘Where is the man that I love?’. Subtle references are included by Stuart Wood’s direction so that audience members more familiar with the layers of this Religious piece will be satisfied with a deeper story telling.
The charismatic Krishna (Gary Pillai), with pale blue face and yellow tunic stands on the stage, set against Angela Davies’ bold abstract set design of a large metallic curved wave sculpture. The moon descends and light fades but Krishna seems to shine out and a sense of achievement to have witnessed the complete story telling of one of the longest poem in English language pervades. This is not the end it is the beginning, for Krishna has encouraged Draupadi to break the revenge cycle. As Krishna says with a twinkle in his eye, ‘You think enlightenment is easy!’