The Mahabharata’s Shakuntala and Dushyant discover themselves in a modern-day setting, addressing the identical previous battle, on this play by Isheeta Ganguly
For anybody who has had an Indian upbringing, the names Shakuntala and Dushyant usually are not alien, due to the The Mahabharata. In reality, their story set in Hastinapur has been so drilled into our minds that it’s an on a regular basis story. However, what makes these classical characters, who’ve been reinterpreted a number of occasions via motion pictures, tales and performs, so relatable? How is a romantic connection between two strangers (like of their story) being interpreted, in at present’s occasions?
Sadly, for essentially the most half, such a situation remains to be unable to dodge ethical judgements. In Mumbai-based playwright, singer and artiste Isheeta Ganguly’s Shakuntala Awaits, these characters re-emerge as a modern-day couple, caught in a conundrum, throughout continents. The play is at the moment on a 60-day Broadway run (digital) at HERE theatre, in New York.
“It’s a story that my grandmother’s sister used to inform me, once I was somewhat woman of 5 or 6. She would inform me folktales nearly each single night time earlier than I went to sleep,” recollects Isheeta over cellphone from Mumbai. She continues, “The story actually captured a toddler’s creativeness. It stayed with me for a few years. And, as I began rediscovering the characters via Romila Thapar’s analyses, I additionally met a couple of acquaintances who have been getting ready to be moms on their very own.”
That’s when she realised, even in 2021, the taboo of turning into a mom out of wedlock, is pervasive globally. This led her to set the play within the US (Boston) and Mumbai.
“What’s astonishing is that, we discuss a lady’s reproductive rights by way of negating being pregnant…however the query of what a lady can do when she needs to have a toddler on her personal, isn’t mentioned [as much],” Isheeta continues. To grow to be a mom out of a relationship, then, abruptly turns into unacceptable.
Shakuntala Awaits tackles the totally different features of this city actuality via a plot loosely based mostly on the story of The Mahabharata’s Shakuntala. “I wished to convey Shakuntala into 2020,” says Isheeta including the play was conceptualised earlier than the pandemic. However within the revisions executed through the lockdowns, the pandemic did discover a means into the narrative.
The story follows a professor (Samrat Chakrabarty) from Harvard reaching Mumbai for a convention, the place he meets a physician (Purva Bedi) at a e book retailer. There sparks a dialog and an evident chemistry between the 2 which ends up in a romantic night. The narrative takes on a special course when the protagonist realises that she is pregnant.
“Shakuntala realises that she doesn’t must make her grandmother’s fairytale the one fairytale that should come via. She will be able to make her personal fairytale,” says Isheeta. “In the end the journey was about realising that she has to reconstruct it in line with her values and actuality.” Shakuntala refuses to stay prisoner to the best notion.
The play doesn’t finish on a ‘fortunately ever after’ notice in a standard sense, however opens up myriad potentialities to an empowering, modern actuality.
The play is on the market until April 3 at: https://right here.org/reveals/shakuntala-awaits/