Mahabharata is a contemporary take on a 4000-year-old Sanskrit epic that is foundational to South Asian culture. This gripping story of a family feud is an exploration of profound philosophical ideas. Why Not’s large-scale retelling stars a cast of performers from across the South Asian diaspora and is told over two large-scale theatrical presentations (Karma and Dharma) bridged by a community meal and storytelling session (Khana & Kahani). Mahabharata was originally commissioned and presented by the Shaw Festival in association with Barbican, London.
Perth Festival, Perth, Australia
FEB 2025
8-16
Canadian Stage, Toronto, Ontario
APRIL 2025
8-20
National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
MAY 2025
13-24
Directed by Ravi Jain
With associate director Miriam Fernandes
Original concept developed with Jenny Koons
A Why Not Theatre Production
Perth run presented by Perth Festival
Toronto run presented by Canadian Stage with Why Not Theatre
Ottawa run presented by the National Arts Centre
Originally commissioned and presented by the Shaw Festival
In association with Barbican, London
Creative
Associate Director Miriam Fernandes
Set Designer Lorenzo Savoini
Costume Designer Gillian Gallow
Lighting Designer Kevin Lamotte
Associate Lighting Designer Mikael Kangas
Projection Designer Hana S. Kim
Associate Projection Designer Ann Slote
Original Music & Sound Designer John Gzowski & Suba Sankaran
Traditional Music Consultant Hasheel Lodhia
Choreographer Brandy Leary with contributions from Jay Emmanuel & Ellora Patnaik
Kathakali Advisor Kalamandalam ThulasiKumar
Original concept developed with Jenny Koons
Creative Associate, Khana & Kahani Storyteller Sharada K Eswar
Lead Production Manager Crystal Lee
Lead Producer Kevin Matthew Wong
Cast
Neil D'Souza
Jay Emmanuel
Miriam Fernandes
Ravin J. Ganatra
Karthik Kadam
Darren Kuppan
Anaka Maharaj-Sandhu
Goldy Notay
Ellora Patnaik
Meher Pavri
Sakuntala Ramanee
Ronica Sajnani
Ishan Sandhu
Navtej Sandhu
Munish Sharma
Arun Varma
Sukania Venugopal
Musicians
Suba Sankaran (Band Leader, Co-Composer, Co-Sound Designer, Voice)
Dylan Bell (Bass, Keyboard, Music Contributions)
Gurtej Singh Hunjan (Percussion & Music Contributions)
Zaheer-Abbas Janmohamed (Tabla & Music Contributions)
Hasheel Lodhia (Bansuri, Voice, Music Contributions)
Mike Murray (Guitar) (Ottawa)
Production Team
Assistant Stage Managers Victoria Wang, Jenny Kim (Perth, Toronto), Wei Qing Tan (Ottawa) and May Nemat Allah (New York)
Technical Director Daniel Bennett
Production Manager Maya Royer (Banff, Toronto, Ottawa)
Production Manager Lauren Rebelo (Perth)
*Apprentice Production Manager, Pre-Production Hailey Tan (Banff)
*Production Stage Manager (Khana & Kahani) & Apprentice Production Manager Jadi Darawi (Toronto)
Head of Video & Video Operation Matthew Mellinger
Head of Sound Brandon Wells
Music Coordinator Zaheer-Abbas Janhommed
Head of Wardrobe Chanti Laliberte
Producer Naomi Campbell (Toronto, Ottawa)
Consulting Producer Rebecca Desmarais
Assistant Producer and Company Manager Nika Jalali
Production Finance Sarah Newkirk
Production Marketing Mary Anderson
Touring Agent David Lieberman Artists' Representatives
Why Not Theatre Executive Director Karen Tisch
Shaw Premiere Cast & Creative
Barbican Tour Cast & Creative
Creation and 2023 Partners
Why Not Theatre
Click the button below to learn more about the Why Not Theatre team.
shaw premiere cast & creative
Creative
Set design by Lorenzo Savoini
Costume design by Gillian Gallow
Lighting design by Kevin Lamotte
Projection design by Hana S. Kim
with Associate Projection designer Ann Slote
Sound design by John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran
Original music by John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran
with contributions from Dylan Bell, Hasheel Lodhia, Gurtej Singh Hunjan, and Zaheer-Abbas Janmohamed
Traditional music consultant Hasheel Lodhia
Choreographed by Brandy Leary
with contributions from Jay Emmanuel and Ellora Patnaik
Khana Storyteller and Creative Associate Sharada Eswar
Lead Producer Kevin Matthew Wong
Producer Michelle Yagi
Assistant Producer and Company Manager Matt Eger
Consulting Producer Kendra Bator
Cast
Jay Emmanuel
Neil D'Souza
Miriam Fernandes
Darren Kuppan
Anaka Maharaj Sandhu
Goldy Notay
Ellora Patnaik
Meher Pavri
Sakuntala Ramanee
Navtej Sandhu
Munish Sharma
Harmage Singh Kalirai
Sukania Venugopal
UNDERSTUDIES:
Varun Guru
Karthik Kadam
Ronica Sajnani
Ishan Sandhu
Musicians
John Gzowski
Gurtej Singh Hunjan
Zaheer-Abbas Janmohammed
Hasheel Lodhia
Suba Sankaran
Production
Associate Production Manager, Maya Royer
Production Stage Manager, Allan Teichman
Stage Manager, Neha Ross
Assistant Stage Managers, Tamara Protic and Ashley Ireland
Assistant Production Manager, Jacob Danson-Faraday*
Video & Systems, Engineer Danny Carr
Video Engineer, Matthew Mellinger
Video Assistant, Cameron Fraser
Technical Director of Video, Daniel Bennett
Assistant Sound Designer, Olivia Wheeler
Bhagavad Gita Opera
Original music and score by John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran
Translation and text adaptation by Sharada K Eswar
Performed by Meher Pavri, with guest recording artist Trichy Sankaran (mrdangam)
For Why Not Theatre
Finance Director, Sarah Newkirk
Associate Producer, Fatima Adam
Operations and Development Manager , Katy Mountain
Interim Marketing and Communications Manager, Mary Anderson
Marketing Specialist, Yvonne Lu Trinh
Web and Graphic Designer, Evan MacKenzie
* This assistantship is supported by the CITT/ICTS In-House Assistantship Program. This program has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, through Canadian Heritage’s Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund.
Khana Catering by Jalsa Kitchen / Rajesh Kataria
Barbican Tour Cast & Creative
barbican tour cast & creative
Creative
Miriam Fernandes, Associate Director
Lorenzo Savoini, Set Designer
Gillian Gallow, Costume Designer
Kevin Lamotte, Lighting Designer
Mikael Kangas, Associate Lighting Designer
Hana S. Kim, Projection Designer
Ann Slote, Associate Projections Designer
John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran, Original Music and Sound Design
Hasheel Lodhia, Traditional Music Consultant
Brandy Leary, Choreographer, with contributions from Jay Emmanuel and Ellora Patnaik
Kathakali Choreography for Jay Emmanuel - Kalamandalam ThulasiKumar (choreography), Kalamandalam Adhityan (Chenda), Kalamandalam Roopesh (Maddalam), Kalamandalam Abhijit Pillai (Thalam).
Sharada K Eswar, Creative Associate, Khana & Kahani Storyteller
Michelle Yagi, Co-Lead Producer
Kevin Matthew Wong, Co-Lead Producer
Crystal Lee, Production Manager
Cast
Ajay Chhabra
Neil D'Souza
Jay Emmanuel
Miriam Fernandes
Varun Guru
Karthik Kadam
Darren Kuppan
Anaka Maharaj-Sandhu
Suma Nair
Goldy Notay
Ellora Patnaik
Meher Pavri
Sakuntala Ramanee
Ronica Sajnani
Ishan Sandhu
Navtej Sandhu
Munish Sharma
Sukania Venugopal
Musicians
Suba Sankaran - Band Leader/Co-Composer/Co-Sound Designer/Voice
Dylan Bell - Bass/Keyboard/Music Contributions
Gurtej Singh Hunjan - Percussion/Music Contributions
Hasheel Lodhia - Bansuri/Voice/Music Contributions
Zaheer-Abbas Janmohamed - Tabla/Music Contributions
Production
Victoria Wang, Assistant Stage Manager
Jenny Kim, Assistant Stage Manager
Daniel Bennett, Technical Director
Anthony Allan, Assistant Technical Director
Danny Carr, Head of Video and Video Op
Matthew Mellinger, Video Engineer
Brandon Wells, Head of Sound
Olivia Wheeler, Assistant Sound Designer & Playback Operator
Rachel Forbes, Head of Wardrobe
Michelle Mohammed, Toronto Company Manager
Maya Royer, Assistant Producer (Mahabharata: Karma and Mahabharata:Dharma) & Production Manager/Stage Manager (Khana & Kahani)
Mary Anderson, Communications
Yvonne Lu Trinh, Digital Marketing
Wise Children Productions - UK General Management
Perspective Marketing - UK PR and Marketing
Karen Tisch, Executive Director of Why Not Theatre
Bhagavad Gita Opera
Original music and score by John Gzowski and Suba Sankaran
Translation and text adaptation by Sharada K Eswar
Performed by Meher Pavri, with guest recording artist Trichy Sankaran (mrdangam)
Shaw Premiere Cast & Creative
Richard & Nancy Hamm
Ravi Jain & Sarena Parmar
Kate Love & Nigel Lawson
Surjit Babra
Marilyn & Charles Baillie
Chanchlani Foundation
Miriam Fernandes & Sturla Alvsvaag
Robert & Julia Foster
Blake & Susan Hutcheson
Nekison Engineering and Contractors
Richard Rooney & Laura Dinner
Daniel Tisch & Kerri Sakamoto
Karen Tisch & Mark Slone
Tamara Zielony
Donna Armstrong
Virginia Dixon
Ernest & Maria Fernandes
Sach Jain
Shailendra Jain
Jessica Kamphorst & Alex Whitehead
Bahi & Abby Kandavel
Raj & Shaila Kothari
Dana Lafarga
Deepa Mehta
Thomas Savundra
Nagpal Vir Family Foundation
Ramesh & Asha Jain
Bhalla Family Foundation
Wuchien Michael Than Foundation
Neil & Amisha Jain
Ravi & Deepa Jeswani
Vahe Koraian
Amit & Swati Singhal
Agrawal Family
2025 Partners
THE LIFE WE INHERIT
THE LIFE WE CHOOSE
In times of division, how do we find wholeness? Are we destined to repeat the mistakes of our ancestors? Can we build a new world? King Janamejaya is confronted with the battle of Kurukshetra, and the battle inside his own heart.
Click the thumbnail below to view a short preview of the opera that premiered at Jaipur Literature Festival Toronto (2020).
Click the thumbnails below each heading to watch the short documentaries.
Click the thumbnail below to watch a recording of the full session.