2,500 year-old Hindu epic retold in engrossing two-hour show Oxford Story Museum’s Woodshed Theatre

The Ramayana
at the Story Museum’s Woodshed Theatre, Oxford

on Thursday, January 23

By Jon Lewis

The victory of Light over Darkness

Oxford’s Story Museum regularly hosts storytelling for adults under the brand of the Crick Club that are often sold out. January’s storyteller, Emily Hennessey, first created her production of the great Indian classic The Ramayana a decade ago in a shortened version aimed at school tours. Now, Hennessey has expanded this 2,500 year-old epic into an engrossing two hour show performing alongside Sheema Mukherjee, the sitar player from Transglobal Underground and The Imagined Village.

Mukherjee is more than an accompanying musician. With a handlebar moustache drawn onto her face, she voices many of the characters, often comically, whilst strumming her sitar and occasionally, tapping a drum. Hennessey creates scenes with great skill, such as when the hero Rama fires a magical blue arrow. She frames it so skillfully in the air so that we can visualise its presence.

Hennessey has selected one of multiple versions of the Ramayana, a story told over Diwali when light triumphs over darkness. Her chosen version begins with an origin story for the demons, baddies with an insatiable desire for wealth, power, opulence, food, and lovers. Ravana, the ten-headed demon king who moves his palace to the island of Lanka, is multitalented, each head an academic discipline except for the one to charm women.

Ravana’s sister, Shurpanaka believes herself to be the most beautiful woman in the world and who falls in love with the two heroes of the story. The third sibling, Kumbhakarna, is an underwater giant who eats whales and is forever hungry.

Rama is a warrior who is married to Sita, a beauty who outshines Shurpanaka. Their idyllic jungle home is shared by Rama’s brother Laksmana, another fighter. Trouble strikes in a similar way to the Trojan wars when Ravana abducts Sita, intending to marry her in Lanka. She rejects him. Rama and Laksmana make friends with the king of the monkeys whose clever, magical servant Hanuman, another hero, discovers Sita’s location. The king provides the heroes with a monkey army to attack Ravana ending in a Lord of the Rings-style existential battle.

It’s a gripping tale, and a great evening’s entertainment.