Nautanki Theatre brings you the best of KiranNagarkar

Bedtime Story is based on the Indian Epic, the Mahabharata. Set in ancient India the Mahabharata tells a story about the deadly enmity between two royal families, the Kauravas and the Pandavas who were cousins. While the Pandavas were India’s greatest warrior heroes, their side was favoured and supported by Lord Krishna; the presiding deity of the Mahabharata and India’s most human and beloved God. Each of the acts of Bedtime Story is based on well-known episodes from the Mahabharata.

KiranNagarkar wrote Bedtime Story in the late 70s. When some Hindu fundamentalist parties boycotted Nagarkar’s play, a legal censorship was imposed forcing the prevention of any shows of Bedtime Story for almost two decades. When Nagarkar visited Byron Bay’s literary festival a few years ago Neel Banerjee of Nautanki Theatre approached him to discuss Bedtime Story. Nagarkar kindly gave Banerjee a copy of the play to read. Since then it has been a steady journey that Nautanki Theatre has embarked on to bring Bedtime Story to Sydney audiences.

JoyrajBhattacharjee, an acclaimed theatre and film director and actor is based in Calcutta. He has extensive experience working both in India and overseas. Bhattacharjee directed Tagore’s play Sacrifice in 2012 which was staged in Sydney. His expertise as a director will bring passion and life to Nagarkar’s play Bedtime Story.

Nautanki Theatre focuses on producing plays with a cross-cultural plot that has connections to the Indian subcontinent. While the Mahabharata is an ancient epic, the parallel storyline forces the audience to consider the relevance of the ancient episodes of the Mahabharata juxtaposed with the more modern turbulent events around the world. Bedtime Story draws parallels to the Cuban crisis, the Vietnam War, the state of emergency in India and various other politically motivated actions camouflaged as nationalism.