To honour his father’s promise, Lord Rama renounces royal life and enters the forest in exile, accompanied by his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana. They settle in the forest of Dandakaranya and build a hermitage at Panchavati. Their life is disrupted when Shoorpanakha, sister of Ravana, encounters Rama and Lakshmana and behaves inappropriately. When she threatens Sita, Lakshmana, on Rama’s command, punishes her by disfiguring her. Humiliated and enraged, Shoorpanakha approaches Ravana and describes Sita’s extraordinary beauty, provoking desire, and vengeance. Ravana devises a deceptive plan with the help of Mareecha, who transforms himself into a magical golden deer. Enchanted by its beauty, Sita asks Rama to capture it for her. Rama leaves Lakshmana behind to protect Sita and follows the deer deep into the forest. After Mareecha is slain, his illusory cry in Rama’s voice frightens Sita, forcing Lakshmana to leave her momentarily. Ravana seizes this opportunity to abduct Sita. As Ravana escapes, the noble bird Jatayu fights valiantly to protect Sita but is fatally wounded. Rama and Lakshmana learn the truth from him, and thus, begins a journey leading to the epic battle between good and evil.
Writer
Parthisubba is a celebrated and influential playwright of the Yakshagana tradition. A master of Prasanga composition, he shaped the Yakshagana literature with his understanding of mythology, poetic structure, dramatic rhythm, rich language, strong characterizations, seamless integration of music, dialogue, and movement ensuring that Yakshagana remained a vibrant, living tradition.
Director
Bannanje Sanjeeva Suvarna is a renowned Yakshagana Guru, educator, and cultural reformer. He trained under several Yakshagana gurus and expanded the art form beyond its traditional boundaries while preserving its classical core. He broke long-standing social barriers by opening Yakshagana training to women, Dalits, tribal communities, and specially challenged students through a Gurukul-based educational model. He has represented Yakshagana on international platforms across Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States, and has trained over 5,000 students across 52 countries.
Director’s Note
Directing Panchavati for the NSD Bengaluru students was challenging but a deeply rewarding experience. Most of the students came from diverse theatre backgrounds and were being introduced to Yakshagana that demands heightened physicality, musical discipline, and stylized expression and guide them to unlearn naturalistic acting and embrace Yakshagana’s codified language of movement, voice, rhythm, and emotion by focusing on body conditioning, rhythmic footwork, facial abhinaya, understanding the prasanga structure and exploring the form’s philosophy and its deep connection to mythology, community, and oral tradition. The production retained the core grammar of Yakshagana, allowing performers to discover its relevance through character and emotion by bridging tradition and modern theatre practice.
Group
The Bengaluru Centre, a regional branch of National School of Drama, Delhi, offers a one-year Intensive Course in Acting focused on integrating South Indian traditional theatre with modern techniques, training versatile actors for Indian theatre.