←Recommendations of Shakuntala, freely adapted from Kalidasa

This is a stunning and heartwarming play that engages with Eastern and Western art forms and beautifully draws on multiple storytelling genres to create a play that aptly feels "like a party." My favorite aspect of the play is the relationship between Madhavya and the King. The script gives actors so much to play with and presents so many technical opportunities to innovate.

This play is so many things that it's hard to nail down an accurate summary: it's a play and a musical and a Bollywood feature and a Desi music video and a wedding and a Shakespearean comedy all rolled into one. Reading brought me a lot of happiness, and I know if I saw it in a theatre I would leave with that same sense of joy.

The crown jewel of Jadhwani's modern adaptations of Indian folklore: vibrant, heartfelt, hilarious, well-paced, and utterly human. Enormous opportunities for a committed cast to make this story their own, and for each production to interpret the play's magical elements anew. I'm struck by the use of musical numbers – it's as though the play is the blueprint for a Bollywood jukebox musical, in a way that honors the emotion at the center of both those films and this fable.

Lavina Jadhwani has been breaking open the canon for years, and this witty adaptation feels like a microcosm of her work. Mixing mythology and Bollywood rom-com tropes, angry sages and delightfully bad puns, this re-telling of Shakuntala's story gives the women in this story more agency over their fates than I've seen in any telling of a myth (except perhaps Jadhwani's own Sitayana). I want to read more stories told with this generosity of spirit, and I will be delighted to see a full production whenever it happens!