Anuradha Kapur’s Virasat reimagines Mahesh Elkunchwar’s Wada trilogy
Director Anuradha Kapur has reimagined Mahesh Elkunchwar’s 'Wada Trilogy' as an immersive, site-specific performance at New Delhi’s Sunder Nursery. The production uses the natural environment to explore themes of feudal decay and post-independence societal transformation.
Why it matters
This production represents a significant shift in Indian experimental theater, moving away from traditional institutional stages to engage with public, historical spaces.
A visceral, three-hour tour de force, Virasat distills Mahesh Elkunchwar’s iconic Wada Trilogy into a poignant saga of a feudal family decaying from within. It is a powerful allegory that speaks fluently to the present, capturing how the slow erosion of human values and environment continues to shape our world today.
Director Anuradha Kapur reimagines her 2013 experiment with a hyperrealistic arena, set by scenographer Deepan Sivaraman, at New Delhi’s Sunder Nursery, doing away with the traditional stage to immerse the audience in a living, breathing landscape. As the audience watches a family suffer from the gradual loss of their land and history while surrounded by the lush biodiversity of a beautifully-restored Mughal-era park, the contrast haunts.
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