Friday, Dec 5, 2003 
NISSAR ALLANA (New Delhi) 
“The Mahabharat Project,” Theatre  
The Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA) established in 2000 is a private academy for training in the performing arts.  Its faculty consists of a core group of highly trained professionals who work on a part time basis with an ongoing commitment to the institute. Its faculty members include actors, designers, architects and media persons dedicated to providing new methodology in training.  

The Mahabharata Project was specially conceived for the Prague Quadrennial PQO3 section “Design as Performance”.  The performance is based on sequences and texts from the Mahabharata of Vyasa, and Shivaji Samant’s Mrityunjaya that locates the character of Karna as the central protagonist and tells the story of the war from his perspective. The performance looks at the story as a memory in the moment of death of Karna.  

The language of performance is seen as non-linear expression and goes beyond the conventional text into an exploration of body language, image and sound. The thematic context is built up through a fragmentation of expressive elements, which intrinsically possess dramatic characteristics. These are juxtaposed in relation to one another to create the overall dramatic structure. Theatrical elements from a range of Indian theatre traditions like martial arts and folk theatre have been used in a contemporary idiom of performance. 

Credits:   
Conceived, Written and Designed by Nissar Allana  
Choreographer: Rashid Ansari 
Costume Design: Amal Allana  
Sound Design: Kabir Singh 
Actors: Ayesha Raza, Jeetendra Kumar, Kana Kashyap, Kusum Haidar, Manish Chaudhari, Rashid Ansari, Swaroopa Ghosh. 
 

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