The tale of Mahabharata is an all-time classic and one of the greatest epics of all time. The story is now all set for a new stage adaptation at London's Barbican Theatre which will open this fall. The legendary Indian epic that packs with it some of the greatest thought-changing and detailed philosophies, a powerful story of a great war and spiritual ideas, is presented by the Canadian theatre production Why Not Theatre and had its world premiere in Canada back in March at The Shaw Festival Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
According to reports, the production will be presented in two parts and will be narrated by a storyteller (Miriam Fernandes). Karma (part 1), is the origin story of the rival Pandava and Kaurava clans. The second part called Dharma shows the great battle between the clans that destroys the planet and the survivors are left behind to rebuild.
The retelling of Mahabharata will be performed by a contingent of actors ranging from across four continents, all of Indian descent. The cast includes UK-based performers Ajay Chhabra, Neil D'Souza, Darren Kuppan, Goldy Notay and Sakuntala Ramanee. They will be joined by Canadian and other international performers like Shawn Ahmed, Jay Emmanuel, Fernandes, Navtej Sandhu, Anaka Maharaj-Sandhu, Ellora Patnaik, Meher Pavri, Munish Sharma and more for the performance.
Mahabharata consists of over 100,000 shlokas, 200,000 verses and over 1.8 million lines. Penned by sage Vedvyasa, while the epic is attributed to him, Mahabharata has in fact seen various interpolations over the ages since its inception sometime during 400 CE. Considered probably the greatest Sanskrit epic of all time alongside the Ramayana, Mahabharata tells the story of the struggle between the Kauravas and the Pandavas resulting in the great war of Kurukshetra.
Alongside the war, the story depicts various aspects of the era such as the environment, kingdoms, livelihood, economy, politics and much more. It also dives great into various philosophical debates as well as things regarding spirituality.
The Mahabharata theatre production will open its big stage on the Barbican from October 1 to October 7.