Communicating Mythology

There is something about mythology, of all types, that has a great appeal for audiences. Karnad's play has that appeal for me. I am interested in all types of mythology, probably because I am a playwright, and I tell stories in dramatic form. I have used my personal mythology, as well as fairy tales, to construct plays. For some reason, it seems that it is easier for me to communicate with an audience through some type of mythology, whether that be an established one, or one of my own making. Last summer I spent the first summer session in Prague, and we attended the Prague Fringe Festival, (a theatre festival), while we were there. Of course, it is impossible to see every show, and some of the shows we saw we wished we hadn't seen, but that is the nature of a fringe festival. The works we saw that resonated with me on a deeper level all had something to do with legend and myth. We saw two shows based on the Selkie myth, both of them presented by British theatre companies. The Selkie myth, for those who aren't familiar with it, is of women who are seals. They shed their skins to dance on the beach once a year, and if their skin is stolen, they must remain in human form until their skin is returned to them. Both of these shows portrayed the myth in totally different ways. Sealskin, presented by the Multi Story company, dealt with the subject using dance and song. The more traditional presentation was of The Harbour, by Limbik. It was a more straightforward telling of the myth. The Selkie myth is a Western one, but there is still something exotic about it. The Czechs who were in the audience were fascinated by the idea of a woman who is also a seal and how that story played out in the lives of the characters in these two shows. The other play we saw, that was my personal favorite out of all the shows I saw, was Kaguya, based on a Japanese folktale. It was a one-person show performed by Makoto Inoue of Japan. This piece was entirely non-verbal. We were handed a page that told us the story the performance was based on, but I found I did not need it at all. I didn't even look at it until I was back in my room later. The actor was able to tell the audience the story by his actions, with the music and lighting enhancing the piece. Karnad's play is giving us, the audience, a chance to explore and experience a mythology we in the West do not know. The otherness of the work and the unfamiliar mythology make it seem alien to us. However, most mythologies have some things in common - gods who make random decisions, which effect humankind, for example. I think one of the reasons I find mythology so fascinating, as well as somewhat comforting, is that it makes me realize I am not the only one who makes up stories to deal with the random things that happen in my world. Mythology still has a strong appeal today - just look at all the summer blockbusters coming out based on some type of mythology: Thor, X-Men First Class, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II - to name a few. These movies tend to do well at the box office. Perhaps they're the Greek tragedies of our day.