Go Ahead, Play With a Cobra

Girish Karnad's fabulist play Naga Mandala (Play with a Cobra) is a wonderful and curious mixed bag of mythology, folktale, social statement, humorous irony and post-Modernism. Or in simpler terms, Karnad steals a few old stories and calls ironic attention to the process of playwrighting, theater and storytelling. The central old story in question is the not-exactly-primed-for-a-happy-ending tale of a young bride seduced away from her abusive husband by a cobra. It is a fairy tale, and like Karnad’s brilliant use of characters from The Mahabharata in his play Yayati, he comments delicately on modern Indian marriage. And he is very funny.

This play is not difficult to watch or understand. Rogue’s Samuel Beckett productions seem more foreign than Naga Mandala. The set is breathtakingly colorful with a large, raked mandala (superbly painted by Amy Novelli) as the house of the couple. The costumes are beautiful. And there are puppets. The cobra of the title comes to vivid life in the work of puppeteer Matt Cotten. Masks designed by Aaron Cromie are comic in the minor characters and supple enough in the leads to be dramatically useful. It’s something of a shock when they take them off. Cindy Meier has directed this play beautifully. The staging is appropriately presentational and by turns natural. It is competent and confident work, deserving of praise.



I want Rogue’s production of Naga Mandala to be successful because it’s a fine piece of world drama. Visually interesting (there’s a giant snake, for God’s sake), poetically charged and often hilarious. If you can, see this play. It’s worth the money and the time.



I found Brian Taraz and Jill Baker utterly charming and fully realized as son and mother. Minor characters trodding into the main action, their performances were wonderful. Taraz is an interesting actor, imminently watchable and physically astute to his characterization. Jill Baker does the comic heavy-lifting and though she wears a mask, she seems almost like a puppet herself. She performs with both voice and body, transforming a comic mask to a character of richness and pathos. As the three flames (and judges) Avis Judd, Kristina Sloan and Jenny Wise are a pleasant spark to the production, gratefully bringing energy to scenes and masque-like interludes.



Ah yes, now the question of the leads. Patty Gallagher plays Rani, the hapless wife. Ms. Gallagher has wonderful physical control, both of her body and voice. Having seen Ms. Gallagher work before I am fairly sure I know what she is capable of and yet there seems in her performance a hollowness not seen before. Her performance lacks passion. I’ll concede that may be intentional. The original source materials for Naga Mandala were literally stories for children. We do not necessarily see the passion of Rapunzel either or the undying love of Cinderella, only the slow crawl to happily ever after. But Karnad is too clever for that and writes against folktale reductions in both this play and others. It is somewhat amazing that the character could be sleeping with a Cobra-Man and somehow that would lack any vestige of sensuality. Yes, the sari is unwrapped and it is very theatrical, but too cool.



Joe McGrath plays Appanna, the abusive husband. He also plays the Cobra having transformed himself to look like the husband. More patient and loving, the Cobra as Man lacks any semblance of his former self. He is, well, a slightly more lackluster version of the cruel Appanna. In McGrath’s characterization of Cobra and Man there was no sensuality, no passion and no physical change from one character to the next. Joe is one of the finer actors in Tucson and also the Artistic Director of Rogue. But I wonder how long the company can support miscasting him. The actor who might play three parts wherein one of them is a snake ought to have more physicality, more vocal control. It was disappointing that the only hints of the Cobra-Man’s former snakey self were light jokes. This character and this production deserve a physically astute actor with strong comedic skills. If Mr. McGrath’s poetic flights and choric speech had been more accomplished the casting would have made a little more sense. Joe’s a great actor but he was miscast.



That being said Naga Mandala is still thoroughly enjoyable. There are rich performances. It is wonderfully staged, beautifully realized and professionally accomplished. It was, however, like its subject matter, just a little too cold-blooded.

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--T. Gonzalez