Akshayambara

Watch Akshayambara, an experimental play incorporating traditional Yakshagana dance-drama to create a contemporary story that raises questions about female representation and male ownership.

The performance imagines a reversal of roles in the popular Yakshagana plot of Draupadi Vastrapaharana from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. A male artist in streevesha plays the virtuous female Draupadi while in a tradition defying move, a woman is cast as the male Pradhana Purusha vesha of Kaurava. As they move from green room to stage, the boundaries of performance, reality and gender are blurred.