“The choices Adishakti made regarding texts it would use in its performances evolved out of its urge to create a multiple aesthetic polyphony, by building bridges between disparate ways of viewing a particular theme.” – Veenapani Chawla
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A Greater Dawn - Written by Veenapani Chawla
In this adaptation of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri, Veenapani explores the epic struggle between Savitri and Death, in which she asks for, and eventually gets, the life of her husband Satyavan.
Softly the rumblings of a gong. A light comes on slowly, lighting up the left side of a semi naked man sitting with his back to the audience in the centre of the stage. He looks armless. The rumbling gong grows a little louder. A single melodious note is struck softly on a xylophone.
The stage has a few screens scattered on it. When the light comes it falls on a space just off one screen. And from behind this screen there emerges an arm...
Bali is on stage standing amongst the seven saalvriksha trees where he begins to exercise his arms, there is clear vision of his magnanimous strength. These are the last few moments before his death.