Reviewed by James Karas
“Do not be confused by the plot.”
That is the advice given to the audience by the Storyteller, a character in the epic, two-part drama now playing at the Festival Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I am not sure if it is meant as a warning or as a soothing thought for us if, at the end of five hours, we are in fact confused by the plots?
The full titles of the two parts are Mahabharata: Karma. The life We Inherit for part one and Mahabharata: Dharma. The Life We Choose for part two. The two parts can be seen in one day as matinee and evening performances or on separate days.
The play is based on an Indian epic that may be some 4000 years old. It started as an oral poem and various versions have survived in the original Sanskrit. It was fully translated into English in the 19th century and published in 5000 pages. That is nothing compared to the current Critical Edition of 13,000 pages in 19 volumes. In the 21st century, Carol Satyamurty has provided us with a “Modern Retelling” of the epic in 843 pages of blank verse. It is this version that Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes have used to adapt and write for this production.
There are 24 characters of various
significance played by 15 actors. The plot takes us over a number of generations
of kings, queens, princes and princesses, lesser mortals, gods, and an opera
singer dealing mostly through the wars of two closely feuding families, the
Pandavas and the Kauravas. The Storyteller (Miriam Fernandes) narrates much of
the tale as we meet the ambitious cousins, the fights for kingship, the marriages,
the offspring and much more.
Festival, 2023). Photo by David Cooper.
The epic has serious philosophical underpinnings dealing with war, peace, honesty, avarice, ambition, power and, finally, gaining of a place in heaven. The grand themes are interwoven with the human virtues and vices of the characters. There is a band on the stage in Part I and the Storyteller’s narrative is frequently accompanied by the playing, in the background, of original music and sound designed by John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran as well as traditional music, Hasheel Lodhia, consultant.
There is a fascinating game of dice with Yudhishthira (Shawn Ahmed) and Shakuni (Sakuntala Ramanee) in which the latter plays with loaded dice and wins everything that Yudhishthira has including himself, his brothers and his wife. Yudhishthira and his clan are condemned to exile for a term of 12 years with further condition that they may not be found anywhere during the thirteenth year. If they are, it is back to exile.
The War results in death and destruction of mythical proportions and the production did not fail to remind us of the effects of war in our time and more specifically what is happening in Ukraine.
The two parts of Mahabharata tell many grand stories and if there is a problem, it is neither in the grand myth nor its adaptation for the stage: it is us. Make that, me. I knew almost nothing about the Indian myths and most of the names were unknown to me. If the play had been based on Biblical stories or Homer’s epics, familiarity would have kicked in immediately and the plot would have been easy to follow.
Shive (Jay Emmanuel) preforms a lengthy dance routine with some familiar poses but aside from that, I understood very little of the purpose of the segment.
In part 2, there is an extended opera aria sung by Meher Pavri. It contains moral and philosophical wisdom. The program tells us that this is a 15-minute Sanskrit opera adaptation of the Bhagavad Gita (The Song of God), which is the most sacred and famous chapter of the Mahabharata epic. The Bhagavad Gita tells of a conversation between the God Krishna and the great warrior Arjuna. This assuages my ignorance a little but does not give me enough context to understand the segment.
The opera is written by Fernandes and Jain with a score by John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran. A work in progress, no doubt, but what is the Bhagavad Gita Opera doing in this production?
My reaction to the two-part production of Mahabharata is one of admiration and perplexity. The production is by Why Not Theatre and London’s Barbican. It was commissioned by the Shaw Festival. It looks like a significant leap up and forward for the Shaw and it should be staged in London.
With any luck, I may see the London
production and not be confused by the plots, or the names or the other
perplexing details of the plays.
______
Mahabharata: Karma. The life We Inherit, Part I and Mahabharata:
Dharma. The Life We Choose Mahabharata,
Part II written and
by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes from
Carole Satyamurti’s retelling of the myth opened on March 9, 2023, at the Shaw
Festival’s Festival Theatre, 10 Queen’s Parade, Niagara-on-the-Lake,
Ontario. www.shawfest.com.
James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment