In 1985, the Boulbon Quarry opened to the public and the theatre for the first time with one of the major events in the history of live performance. It was the nine-hour long Mahabharata directed by Peter Brook, performed by more than twenty actors and five musicians. Jean-Claude Carrière adapted and condensed eighteen volumes, about forty thousand pages, of the fundamental text of Hinduism. Maurice Benichou played Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. He says, “The whole history of humanity is found there, in this popular text. The determination to found a nation on lies by exterminating one's neighbours... the individual war, inside everyone confronted with the forces of the shadows... The text is incredibly current. It was written five thousand years ago, it remains timeless. It contains the whole of Shakespeare, all ancient theatre, all contemporary theatre...” The god Krishna who comes down to Earth to try to restore peace between the Pandavas and their cousins, the Kauravas, fails and dies. He accepts the curse but one light was saved. In an empty space, eighteen years after the Mahabharata, Maurice Benichou tells the storyof La Mort de Krishna, inspired by the last volume of the epic tale, adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière and Marie-Hélène Estienne. Accompanied by singer, Sharmila Roy, the story-teller broaches this Indian tale with the modest aim “to give us a little light and to reconcile us with an ending which we have to accept.”
Distribution
text :Jean-Claude Carrière, Marie-Hélène Estienne
direction :Peter Brook
cast :Maurice Benichou, Sharmila Roy
lighting: Philippe Vialatte
Production
Production:CICT / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord
Texte publié par :Actes Sud