BALI, THE SACRIFICE: Karnad, Leicester Haymarket till 15 June
Leicester
BALI (THE SACRIFICE): Girish Karnad
Haymarket: Tkts 0116 253 9797
Runs: 1h 30m, no interval, till 15 June
Review: Rod Dungate, 6 June 2002
A deceptively simple looking package with a whole heap of riches inside.Girish Karnad's play is a simple-seeming myth-like tale: but do not be fooled. Appearance can be (and in this case is) deceptive. As Karnad's tale unfolds - and before you realise what's happening – you are gently caught up in complex debates about religion and the changing faces of it, pacifism and violence, women and men and sex, sin and forgiveness. It is enormously thought-provoking – and uncomfortably (but quite properly) without easy solutions.
A queen is seduced by an elephant-keeper's singing and spends a night making passionate love with him, although he doesn't know who she is. The king, madly in love with his wife, follows her and stands outside the room until he can bear it no longer. he runs away to his palace garden where he meets his mother. The mother despises her son because he has converted to Jainism – a non violent religion – whereas she still carries out blood sacrifices. It is her daughter-in-law who has persuaded her husband, the king, to convert. Mother and daughter-in-law hate each other.
Karnad, who lives in India and only recently has taken to writing in English, naturally creates from within a context different from ours. Transplanted into a UK theatre culture the result is intriguing. Relieved of some of the need for a realistic psychological base for his characters or plot the story is somehow stripped down, somehow more storyish. The themes are clearer (though never simplistic) and you find yourself debating rights and wrongs as the play moves along.
Gary Turner and Neve Taylor (King and Queen) create a relationship with real electricity. Taylor's Queen is full of vitality, joy and turmoil: she has a steely resolve that pays bonuses late in the play. Turner's King is tall, handsome and very gentle: visibly torn between love, jealousy, anger, hurt and forgiveness. His very vulnerability drags you into the play's debates.
Nona Shepphard directs with skill and deftly melds Eastern and Western cultures. I would only have wished for a little more clarity at the climax point – as it stands it's almost as if the play loses confidence in itself.
The Mahout: Naseeruddin Shah
Queen Mother: Ratna Pathak Shah
Queen: Neve Taylor
King: Gary Turner
Director: Nona Shepphard
Designer: Marsha Roddy
Lighting: Paul J Need
Music: Andrew Dodge
Sound: Scott George (Aura Sound Design Ltd)
2002-06-07 00:01:10