Mahabharata by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Mahabharata by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes
• Stephen Low

MAHABHARATA. Written and adapted by Ravi Jain and Miriam Fernandes. Directed by Ravi Jain. Shaw Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. March 26, 2023.

The Mahabharata is an ancient Sanskrit epic poem that is rarely performed on contemporary stages. Toronto’s Why Not Theatre, in association with the Barbican in London and the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, have brought this Indian epic to life for contemporary audiences.

Director Ravi Jain and associate director Miriam Fernandes adapted the Mahabharata—using poetry from Carole Satyamurti’s Mahabharata: A Modern Retelling (2015)—into a two-part, six-hour theatrical experience. Transforming the Mahabharata—which includes many sacred texts in the Hindu religious tradition, such as the Bhagavad Gita and an abbreviated version of the Ramayana—is a fraught task that involves making difficul choices, especially when it comes to cutting, abridging, and altering language, stories, and ideas that have deep spiritual meaning for many people around the world. As the playwrights’ note for this production contends, there are “as many Mahabharatas as there are storytellers.” This multiplicity is reflected in Jain and Fernandes’ adaption and in a production that was ancient and contemporary, secular and spiritual, earthly and divine.

The first part of this two-part epic, Karma: The Life We Inherit, began with Fernandes, as the Storyteller, stepping into a circle of red sand sprinkled on the stage, with the other members of the cast sitting on stools outside of it. By simply stepping over the perimeter of red sand into the circle, she established the formal performance space. She then lit a flame in a wide-mouthed metal bowl that she placed outside the circle. Fernandes, as the Storyteller, explained to King Janamejaya why he should show mercy to the snakes of the world; he was about to sacrifice several to a holy flame to avenge his father’s death by venomous snakebite. This scenario acted as the framing narrative within which the Storyteller narrated the other tales that make up the Mahabharata. The flame Fernandes lit provided a sense of religious ritual to the proceedings but also stood in for the flame over which the snakes were held aloft as the King considered their fate. This initial framing was represented by a curtain of ropes, echoing the shape of snakes, hanging along the back of the stage. At first, this curtain of ropes appeared to be the sort of backstage mechanism present in any theatre—perhaps cords used to hoist scenery into the fly space above—which had been left exposed. But at a critical moment, they were raised up to represent the snakes that the King and his priests held over the flame before the entreaties of the Storyteller succeeded in making them pause their vengeful ritual. The Storyteller related the tales of the Mahabharata to the King to demonstrate that revenge begets revenge, establishing an endless cycle of violence. To persuade the King to break this cycle with an act of forgiveness and love, the Storyteller recounted the events that led to the inevitable war between the Pandavas, King Janamejaya’s ancestors, and their cousin Duryodhana and his hundred brothers, the Kauravas. In this first part, the Storyteller provided explanations for certain mystical curses or blessings that some of the characters had upon them, which determined the action of the looming conflict—which was in turn central to the second part of the performance.

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Ellora Patnaik (Kunti) in Mahabharata. (Photo: David Cooper.)

Part 2, Dharma: The Life We Choose, focused on the story of the Kurukshetra War between the Kauravas and the Pandavas. In contrast to part 1, which did not include much of a set except the red sand and stools, the royal setting of much of the action of the second part was intimated by chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and oriental rugs laying across the stage, between which sat more red sand. After the war unleashed devastating violence and much death, part 2 concluded with the decision of King Janamejaya to grant clemency to the snakes. These stories and stories within stories...