Mahabharata – Nalacharitam

According to Peter Brook who staged his legendary “Mahabharata” in 1985 this Indian epic is the Bible and Shakespeare put together. Miyagi chose out of this huge literary material a gentle love poem “Nalacharitam”, which is the story of love between king Nala and princess Damayanti. He transfers the action from ancient India to the 10th century’s Japan. Engaged in the performance are 25 actors/dancers, a very stylish orchestra and a very funny storyteller. All of them quite naturally and effectively involve the audience in the happenings on stage <...>
The director quite aptly mixed up the traditional Japanese theatre genres. Like burnaku and kabuki, a less known style kamishibai (paper theatre). In the meantime he managed to gracefully imbibe the performance with modern techniques. The actors look like skillfully drawn anime characters, their movement and gestures are flawless. Watching it is like reading a picture book for children which fascinating but at times terrifying.

It is all very simple and at the same time perfect. But most importantly, it is incredibly beautiful. It is not the beauty that leaves you perplexed. It is the kind of beauty that sends you to zero gravity. It’s like a flight to the world inhabited by passing instants.