OhN 7 October 2023, when Hamas launched an offensive on Israel, why Toronto’s theater actors were preparing to perform a five -hour adaptation of the Mahabharata in London’s Barbigan. Based on the oldest remains of the world (which is said to be about 100,000 verses and 2 m words), the show tells the story of 4,000 years old India In two branches of a family dynasty, the war on a kingdom destroys the world. It echoes the story of choices and their effects, for generations; The game of the contestant’s heir or the throne.
Why not the theater’s hands, this is about the terrible power of the stories and histories we tell about us. At the most significant moments of play, a young prince asks why, and when different plants live in harmony, he and his siblings could not live with their relatives. “When the truth cannot be acknowledged, the war is inevitable,” his grandfather replied.
The landing event in Australia this month Perth FestivalIt feels that it is particularly vibrated in the light of the wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine.
“Unfortunately, this has become so relevant. But I would say that this is always relevant. We are now feeling more because we are facing such serious and terrible deeds online,” says Ravi Jain, the art director of the theater.
“It is very important to do this show; we must remember that we are human, and we live in a world that continues to force us not to choose humanity. We want to choose the individual; we want to choose your profit. It is the law of the forest. Whatever it is, we have to do it. ”
Why the theater show suppresses the epic scope of the original text and countless sub -sects and writings for five hours, which are performed in two areas. Guardian described it “Magistrates in its own right, sophisticated and dazzling”.
A section entitled Karma tells the original story of the rival Pandava and the Aura Rava clans and how they understand the effects of their ancestors. In the second part, Dharma increases their enmity as an apocaliptic war, and how to re -create the survivors.
The story is brought to a clear life through 17 artists and six musicians who advance to the first contemporary story forms: “Storytelling” – “Storytelling” – and a fire, we go through the street theater, the classical Indian dance, and the giant collections with direct video and giant. Western style play with screens. There is a 15 -minute opera version of the Bhagavad Gita sung in Sanskrit at the spectacular climax.
Between the two epic theater of the show, the most intimate, informal-and will-third part: a social food and storytelling session, during which theater producers share a story about food from the Mahabharata.
“This is an opportunity for most (Indian) people to enjoy the story of the Mahabharata,” says Miriam Fernandez, who created the show with Jain, “says Miriam Fernandes. “Most of the time, people hear it around a dinner table, or you get a small lesson here or where you need it.”
As for the Indians, the Mahabharata is not only a story, but the combination of the Hindu scriptures; It is comparable to the Bible, and is comparable to ancient Greek mythology such as Odyssey and Illia – although very different in content and form.
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“In a Western environment, we are always looking for answers. We want to say that we are right or wrong; this guy is a bad guy. We want a lesson and a moral as a Bible gives us,” says Fernandez. It is like Indian culture – it is yours. ”
The production of the theater is why the artists of the Indian heritage are the first largest international adaptation of the Mahabharata, and it is played exclusively from the Indian and South Asian diaspora. 40 years after the British Director’s nine -hour adaptation it descends in Perth Peter Brooke Screened in France. That product was called a masterpiece creative, and Helped to redefine the theater. It was alleged that Epic, orientalist act of cultural quota.
“The most important of us is the hybrid audience, that’s the fact that we are really making this,” says Jain. “We are Canadians, we are Indians. We do not live in some sort of (culture).”
Fernandez says that the company has performed the event throughout the continents for the Mahabharata newcomers and the Indian and South Asian “Aunts and Uncle”, which is very happy to hear the members of the audience.
“People are chatting over the theater, lobby, bathroom, dinner, and you are enjoying something together, which is the heart of what we are doing in the theater. I think people can be intimidated by the length of the show, but this is a rare offer; It is a chance to go for a trip. ”
