The world\u2019s oldest surviving poem is a \u2018tragically relevant\u2019 tale of vengeance to rival Game of Thrones, with a stage adaptation heading to Perth. Just don\u2019t expect good guys and bad guys<\/p>\n
On 7 October 2023, as Hamas launched an attack on Israel, the cast of Toronto\u2019s Why Not Theatre were preparing to perform their five-hour adaptation of the Mahabharata at London\u2019s Barbican. Based on the world\u2019s oldest surviving poem (which is told across roughly 100,000 verses and 2m words), the show tells the 4,000-year-old tale from India of two branches of a family dynasty, whose war over a kingdom destroys the world. It\u2019s a tale of choices and their consequences, echoing across generations; tit-for-tat cycles of vengeance that rival Succession or Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n
In Why Not Theatre\u2019s hands, it\u2019s also about the dreadful power of the stories and histories we tell about ourselves. In one of the play\u2019s most striking moments, a young prince asks why, when different plants can coexist in harmony, he and his siblings are unable to live side by side with their cousins. \u201cWhen the truth cannot be agreed upon, war is inevitable,\u201d his grandfather replies.<\/p>\n