Shakuntala

A new play by Lavina Jadhwani

Or: The Light Within

A delightful reboot of a 4th century Sanskrit play, Lavina Jadhwani’s Shakuntala tells the story of love, honor, and the true name of India. The story of a King (Jesse Bhamrah) who falls in love with a forest votress, Shakuntala (Alia Peck) only for both to suffer a terrible curse on their wedding day, the play is a celebration, rich with poetry and sparkling with modern day wit.

Jadhwani gifts her characters with an easy, open relationship with their audience and each other, and richly clothes the legends with splendors of Hindi cinema, which director Sophiyaa Nayar plays to the hilt (lingering, music filled glances between the lovers, violent strings when calamity threatens, even an extended dance break with the exotic Swiss Alps and romantic mustard fields of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge).

Nayar also has an expert eye for zoom theater, bright forward in touches like the King crouching down so his eyes peak over the screen while listening to his beloved chat with her best friends and ardent feminists Priya (Tina Muñoz Pandya) and Anushka (Jasmine Sharma), always quick to cast salt on the more traditional lines and virtues of the original tale.

Bhamrah is an excellent King dancing ably between a goofy suitor, noble hearted hero, and callous monarch (Shakespeare could not, and has not, done better in translating a romantic worm redeemed). He also has suburb delivery of Jadhwani’s offhand lines (A favorite exchange: “You’re not dying Ma, we have royal health care!” he exclaims to his Queen Mother (the matchless Miriam A. Lube who doubles as Shakuntala’s adoptive mother Gautami).

The royals are rounded out by Madhavya (Levin Valavil) the ubiquitous clown and boon companion to the King, who pursues his own love with Priya (Muñoz Pandya with her patented blend of warmth and steeliness), together providing commentary and counterpoint to the tragic ropes of fate that bind Shakuntala and her husband.

Shakuntala is a sterling story and an expression of pride in a ancient and venerable culture that also goes about pick off the creepers of patriarchy that sometimes cling to it. It is storytelling at its best, a chance to come together, even though we are far apart, to gasp, cackle, and dance a little in our seats. Jadhwani’s script is lively and deep and brings out brilliance in her talented cast. I hoep to see it with full trappings, on the stage, very soon.