Peter Brook’s Mahabharata enthrals at NCPA
National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) before a packed hall of 1,000 on Saturday.
The play is an adaptation of a section of Brook’s The Mahabharata, first staged three decades ago, and focuses on the end of the war, as the Pandavas and Kauravas come to terms with the violence they have wreaked. Daunting themes of fate, free will and destiny are addressed through simple conversations, allegorical incidents and the relationships between the characters.
Four actors — Jared Mcneill and Ery Nzaramba from Rwanda, Sean O’callaghan from Ireland and Carol Karemara from Belgium — play Yudishthira, Krishna, Dhritarashtra and Kunti respectively.
“The play has deep reso nance in modern times,” said Bertrand de Hartingh, head of culture at the French embassy, who was in the audience “With its meditations on loss, death and the futility of war, it’s the kind of production that can create bridges between people. Even in just an hour, as opposed to the original, so much can be seen and felt.”
The original was nine hours long, and 58-year-old historian Zal Davar from Colaba has now seen both productions. “I was a PHD student when I saw it in London,” Davar says.
“We had scraped together money to go watch it. It was a wonderfully validating experience to see an Indian epic come to life on the British stage, but I have to say it was even better to see a modern version staged here at home ”