based on The Mahabharata and the play by Jean-Claude Carrière
seen at the Young Vic on 17 February 2016
The play is adapted and directed by Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne with lighting by Philippe Vialatte, costumes by Oria Puppo and music by Toshi Tsuchitori. Sean O'Callaghan plays the blind king Dritarashtra, Jared McNeill the new king Yudishtira, Carole Karemera his mother, and Ery Nzaramba takes other parts (as do the rest of the cast).
Famously in the 1980s Peter Brook prepared a nine-hour production of The Marabharata which was performed outdoors so that its conclusion coincided with dawn. This new play lasts only 70 minutes and focuses on the aftermath of the crucial battle which occurs towards the end of the epic. Millions lie dead, including all the sons of the blind king (on one side) and all the brothers of the new king (on the other). Yet after all this mayhem we see only four actors and a musician on a bare stage with a few cloths and sticks for props, in an extraordinarily concentrated piece of staging.
