Indian epic

A family feud between two rival groups of cousins, the offspring of a royal dynasty: that's the central storyline of Mahabharata, regarded as one of the oldest and longest epic poems in world literature, and a cornerstone of ancient Indian scriptures.

The feud between the five Pandava brothers on one side and the 100 Kauravas on the other is pursued by every possible means. First, Duryodhana, the oldest Kaurava, consumed by his hatred and jealousy of his rival cousins, challenges the eldest Pandava, Yudhistira, to a game of dice, for he is known to have a weakness for gambling. The dice are loaded, and Yudhistira doesn't know when to quit. Result: he loses everything - kingdom, land, money, even his wife, the young and beautiful Princess Draupadi. A bloody war inevitably follows. It's all the stuff of an epic film, but instead writer Stephen Clark and director Stuart Wood have produced a new adaptation of Mahabharata - or at least part of it - for the stage, ending up with a mixture of conventional theatre, dance, music, and puppetry.

Stephen first became involved with music theatre after studying at Oxford University with Stephen Sondheim, who was the University's first Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre at the time. Clark's first musical, Eyam, was produced at the Old Fire Station in 1991.

"Sondheim always said: From blank page to opening night, a piece of musical theatre takes five years, and there's no way of short-circuiting that'," Stephen Clark recalled. Mahabharata has taken seven years to get off the drawing board. Quite a test of a relationship, I suggested. Had there been tricky moments along the way?

"We've not fallen out at all in those seven years - that's pretty good," Stuart Wood revealed, adding that the presence of a collaborative partner was a great advantage.

"It's such an enormous piece that you need some support as you go into the darkness holding a torch.

"Theatre is traditionally collaborative, but this is the ultimate collaborative experience. We've thrashed ideas out together, and chosen which angles of the story to take," said Stephen.

So how did Stuart and Stephen decide what to include and what to leave out?

"We went to Switzerland once the project was formally instigated. We sat in a temple with a number of priests and Mahabharata experts. We talked, and made notes. They told us about the tributaries of the story, and the characters that kept coming back and the most interesting was Draupadi, who is often marginalised in other adaptations. She holds the uncomfortable truth that it's a woman who is supposed to be full of the milk of human kindness, but she instigates a catastrophic war. She nags her husbands for 13 years before they are prepared to take up arms."

"So there was a feeling that we were dealing with something morally uncomfortable. Much of the Mahabharata is morally uncomfortable because it opens up areas that provide a mirror for us to look at and examine what our position is on all sorts of issues - war, revenge, and self-interest, for instance. Because Hindu philosophy is so beautifully constructed, but at the same time ambiguous, we felt that choosing Draupadi as the central plank of our production gave those ideas a focus."

Draupadi, played by Natasha Jayetileke, comes over as both feisty and a distinctly tough cookie. She is married to Arjuna, one of the five Pandava brothers, who won her hand as a prize in an archery competition. After the competition, however, Arjuna's mother unwittingly tells him that any prize he has won must be shared with all his brothers.

Thus Draupadi ends up with not one husband but five, one of whom is the infamous Yudhistira, who has lost everything in the game of dice. His gambling debts even include Draupadi's clothes, and she is about to be stripped naked when Krishna, Lord of the Universe, intervenes to protect her modesty. But the now penniless Yudhistira and his brothers are still condemned to 13 years in exile, with Draupadi both swearing revenge on the 100 Kauravas and pouring scorn on her five husbands - a scene which Natasha Jayetileke plays with very evident relish.

"Yes I do. I really relish that part," Natasha said with enthusiasm. "Thirteen years of disgrace is enough to make any woman berate her five husbands. She is utterly perplexed and bemused by the fact that Arjuna has won her as the result of an archery contest, so she has to marry him and his four brothers. It's a bittersweet moment when she finds out that Arjuna is the man she wanted to marry all along, but he comes with four others in tow.

"I love Draupadi, she's born out of fire," said Natasha. "She is feisty and gets a little peeved, but she also has a very tender side. The average princess in a modern play isn't usually like that."

And Natasha should know about modern plays, for she came straight from the cast of Disney's The Lion King and had just three weeks to "unDisneyfy" herself, as she described it, and prepare for her very different role in Mahabharata. How much of Natasha's own character, I wondered, appears in Draupadi?

"Hmmm. A fair bit, though I'm not at all married, let alone to five men. However, I like Draupadi's humour, and the fact that she's very quick-witted. She thinks before she speaks and before her emotions are evoked. That's a trait I wish I had. I'm far more emotional of the heart than of the head. But I hope it wouldn't take me 13 years to get off my bottom and make a decision about something."

Taking what could be described as an overview of events is Krishna, the Lord of the Universe. He appears in human form to protect the pious, punish evildoers, and establish dharma, the eternal spiritual laws of creation. He is played by Gary Pillai, who after an early first appearance on stage in a rather more humble role, went on to the Oxford School of Drama at Wootton, Woodstock.

"I'm 38 now, so I left a long time ago. But I had a very good time there, including working with one of the best voice tutors in the country, Barry Armstrong, who has now retired. It's one of the top drama schools in the country and is quite a beacon for Oxfordshire.

"The first play I did was at school: I was Mole in The Wind in the Willows. I was seven years old and I really enjoyed it. But I never had any ambitions to act professionally - I was going to become an accountant. My parents are both accountants. Being from a Sri Lankan family, we weren't involved in the arts and it was very much expected that I was going follow into my parents' profession.

"They were horrified when I said I wanted to go drama school, because of the lack of security. But they were very supportive. My English teacher at school inspired me - so often things are down to inspiring teachers, aren't they?"

Mahabharata runs at the Oxford Playhouse from Tuesday, June 19, to Saturday, June 23. For tickets call 01865 305305 or online from www.oxfordplayhouse.com