The heart of the story is in the dialogue, and the chemistry between the characters. With a minimum of stage directions, this is a director's play - it can be done on an entirely bare stage or with as many props as desired. Is he the dual self of her husband, or a metaphor for the wild sexual longings of the repressed Indian woman? The playwright leaves that to the viewer's imagination. The snake, that hallowed phallic symbol from time immemorial, has a bit of an ambiguous role in this play. However, she extricates herself from this predicament with the help of her Naga lover in a totally satisfying climax with an unexpected twist. As time goes by, she becomes pregnant - and an adulteress in the eyes of Appanna and the world. So Rani's life now revolves around the strange duality of a husband who is a tyrant by day and a romeo by night. The snake falls in love with Rani, and visits her every night in the guise of her husband. To win her husband's love, she tries lacing his food with a magic root supplied by a blind witch - but ends up pouring it down a snake's lair by mistake. He comes back every morning to eat, during which time he only scolds her. The actual play involves Rani, a young girl locked up inside his house by her boorish husband Appanna, who goes on his philandering way every night. She keeps him awake with a tale, with the proviso that he has to tell it to the world. He does so with the help of "story", which is the tale personified in the form of a beautiful woman. The play has a framing story, about a man who must keep awake to avoid death. "Nagamandala" has been created out of two folktales, I have heard (I am not sure). That is why drama is an eminently suitable medium for transmitting myth and fable: for on the stage, both time and space telescope and there is a willing suspension of disbelief on part of the audience. The earliest myth-creators were possibly the earliest dramatists too. Myth must have originated around the campfire of primitive man, as he narrated the tales of the hunt suitably embellished with symbols dragged up from the depths of his mind, where it connects with the collective unconscious of humanity. That is why drama is an eminently suitable medium for transmitting myth and fable: for on the stage, both time and space telescope and there is a wil The epitome of storytelling is, IMO, myth. The epitome of storytelling is, IMO, myth.
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