Epic ‘Mahabharata’ at the Shaw Festival feels urgent yet strikingly timeless
The tale’s latest branch is emerging at what is perhaps an unlikely source: Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Shaw Festival. This “Mahabharata” takes the form of a five-hour theatrical event, split into two parts, each with two acts.
I’ll spare the play’s narrative details. As the Storyteller tells the audience off the top: “Don’t be confused by the plots. Within the river of stories flows infinite wisdom.” The first of the two parts, “Karma,” centres thematically around “the life we inherit,” while the second part, “Dharma,” focuses on the idea of “the life we choose.”
What’s special about Jain and Fernandes’s adaptation is that it offers something for all, no matter how familiar they are with the original stories. The work is accessible yet never compromises in depth; it moves at a clipped pace but also doesn’t shy away from the text’s knotty contradictions. But as the epic play unfurls, the production designs grow more complex, culminating in the first act of “Dharma,” as both the Kauravas and Pandavas prepare for battle. If the proceedings in “Karma” were firmly set in the past, things are not quite as clear in “Dharma.”
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