A five-hour play, 4,000 years in the making: India’s epic Mahabharata arrives in Australia
On 7 October 2023, as Hamas launched an attack on Israel, the cast of Toronto’s Why Not Theatre were preparing to perform their five-hour adaptation of the Mahabharata at London’s Barbican. Based on the world’s oldest surviving poem (which is told across roughly 100,000 verses and 2m words), the show tells the 4,000-year-old tale from India of two branches of a family dynasty, whose war over a kingdom destroys the world. It’s a tale of choices and their consequences, echoing across generations; tit-for-tat cycles of vengeance that rival Succession or Game of Thrones.
In Why Not Theatre’s hands, it’s also about the dreadful power of the stories and histories we tell about ourselves. In one of the play’s most striking moments, a young prince asks why, when different plants can coexist in harmony, he and his siblings are unable to live side by side with their cousins. “When the truth cannot be agreed upon, war is inevitable,” his grandfather replies.
The show, which lands in Australia this month as part of the Perth festival, feels particularly resonant in light of wars between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine.
“Tragically, it has become more relevant. But I would say that it has always been relevant, and we just feel it more now because we’ve been faced with such extreme, horrible acts that we’ve seen online,” says Ravi Jain, the artistic director of Why Not Theatre.
“It makes doing this show that much more important; we have to remember that we’re humans, and we’re living in a world that’s constantly forcing us to not choose humanity. We want to choose the individual; we want to choose my gain over yours. It is the law of the jungle. And in this story, a core belief is that as humans, we need to do the opposite.”
Why Not Theatre’s show condenses the original text’s epic scope and myriad subplots and characters into five hours, staged across two parts. The Guardian described it as “magisterial in its own right, meticulous and dazzling”.
Part one, titled Karma, tells the origin story of the rival Pandava and Kaurava clans and how they grapple with the consequences of their ancestors’ actions. In part two, Dharma, their feud escalates into an apocalyptic battle, and the survivors are left to grapple with how to rebuild.
The tale is brought to vivid life via a cast of 17 performers and six musicians, who progress from ancient to contemporary narrative forms: starting with a lone character – “the Storyteller” – and a fire, we move through street theatre, classical Indian dance forms, and western-style drama with elaborate sets and giant screens with live video. At the spectacular climax is a 15-minute opera version of the Bhagavad Gita, sung in Sanskrit.
Between the show’s two epic theatrical acts is a more intimate, informal – and optional – third part: a community meal and storytelling session, during which the theatre-makers share a tale from the Mahabharata over food.
“It’s an opportunity for audiences to experience the Mahabharata in the way that most [Indian] people experience the story,” says Miriam Fernandes, who co-created the show with Jain and also plays the Storyteller. “Most of the time, people are hearing it around a dinner table, or you’re getting a little lesson here or there where you need it.”
For Indians, the Mahabharata is not just a story but an encapsulation of Hindu scriptures; it’s comparable to the Bible, and ancient Greek myths such as the Odyssey and the Iliad – though vastly different in content and form.
“In a western context, we’re always looking for answers. We want to be told right or wrong; this guy’s the good guy and that guy’s a bad guy. We want a lesson and a moral at the end, like the Bible gives us,” says Fernandes. “And Mahabharata is not that. It contradicts itself, and it’s like Indian culture – it gets more and more confusing and it’s up to you to solve it.”
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Why Not Theatre’s production is the first major international adaptation of the Mahabharata led by artists of Indian heritage, and it is cast exclusively from the Indian and South Asian diaspora. It lands in Perth 40 years after the landmark nine-hour adaptation by British director Peter Brook premiered in France. That production was dubbed a masterpiece, and helped redefine theatre. It was also accused of being an epic, orientalist act of cultural appropriation.
“The key for us really in the making of this was the hybrid audience, which is who we are,” says Jain. “We are Canadians and we’re Indians, and we kind of live in neither [culture].”
As the company has performed the show across continents for Mahabharata newcomers as well as Indian and South Asian “aunties and uncles” who know the story well, Fernandes says what makes her most joyful is hearing audience members talk about “what a journey you go on with the people around you”.
“People are chatting in the theatre, in the lobby, in the bathroom, over dinner, and you get to experience something together, which is the heart of what we do at the theatre. I think people can be intimidated by the length of the show, but it’s a rare offering; it’s a chance to go on a journey.”
Mahabharata महाभारतम् runs from 8-16 February at His Majesty’s Theatre as part of the Perth festival
