The story of Shakuntala and Dushyanta is an age old one. Whether you’ve read it in the Mahabharata or as Kalidasa’s Abhijnanashakuntalam, odds are, you’ve seen or heard some iteration of the tale – a rishi’s beautiful daughter falling in love with a handsome king and marrying him, only to be cursed that her love would forget her. His recognition depends on the ring adorning her finger, but fate plays cruel tricks on the lovers before finally allowing them to reunite after years of separation. It’s this ‘fabulous Indian fairytale’ that director and writer Kevin Oliver is set to bring to the stage with his theatrical twist.
“It’s my mad version of Shakuntala,” says Oliver, who has ‘used the big bones of the story’ but created an eclectic world with the sets, costumes and original music with about 81 songs in total. “It’s all written in English but encompasses rock, pop, jazz, blues, mixed in with classical dancing. It’s an opera, so it’s songs from beginning to end. The costumes, too, are from all over the world – sarongs right alongside dhotis and lungis. I’m using fashion as a tool, but bringing in art too,” he says, revealing that artist Raghava KK will be creating a 17-metre-long work for the show, while C Krishniah Chetty & Co will be providing antique jewellery for some performers.
Oliver made a comeback in Bengaluru last year after a 30- year absence with sold-out shows of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, which he had originally staged as a teacher in the city. Odyssey of Love, too, was written during his time in Dubai 20 years ago. “I had done so much of Weber’s stuff and everyone else’s musicals, and was travelling around the world when one of the principals at the school said, ‘Why are you looking for so many things? Write your own stuff and base it on a fairy tale from India. There are thousands of stories that haven’t been seen around the world.’ That got me thinking,” he explains, adding, “I initially performed it with a choir. Ten years later, I got to take it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a bunch of high school kids and we revamped the show into an opera. We even won an award for it. Since then, I’ve been dying to do it in India.”
The revamped show – funds from which will go towards a charitable organisation for children – sounds different from the original, explains Oliver, adding, “It’s been updated – we’ve reworked the arrangements, thrown in a lot of instrumentation (live keyboards and drums). Hopefully, the young theatre-music lover falls in love with the story.”
(Odyssey of Love will be staged on May 7, 8 and 9. Tickets on bookmyshow.com)