Peter Brook’s international production made a powerful case for telling the Mahabharata across national and racial boundaries—but it did not settle who has the authority to adapt a story central to Indian culture and religion. Its history is best understood as an ambitious act of translation whose welcome and criticism both matter.
What Brook’s production set out to do
Director Peter Brook and writer Jean-Claude Carrière developed their adaptation over several years. Brook said they first encountered the story through oral telling by Sanskrit scholar Philippe Lavastine. They then read translations, traveled in India, explored performance traditions and worked through scenes with international performers, musicians and dancers. A Kathakali teacher spent several months with the company.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
The Mahabharata | $99.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
|
Peter Brook's The Mahabharata | $310.90 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
![Here Comes Peter Cottontail [DVD]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51uYBjr4ryL._SL160_.jpg)
|
Here Comes Peter Cottontail [DVD] | $5.23 | Buy on Amazon |
Brook described conflict as the epic’s central theme and connected that theme to his own time. The company’s approach was not to claim a definitive or comprehensive representation of India, but to make a particular adaptation that could suggest the story’s reach. Brook later described the aim as “not to imitate but to suggest.” (Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1987; Los Angeles Times, January 19, 1986)
How the stage production and screen versions differed
The stage production
The stage version premiered at the Avignon Festival in 1985. It lasted nine hours; audiences could see the whole event or attend across three evenings. The Peter Brook Foundation says the production toured for more than two years, visiting fourteen cities on three continents, and that its cast represented more than 16 nationalities. These are figures published by the Foundation in its retrospective, not independently verified counts. (Peter Brook Foundation, “8K Restoration”; Victoria and Albert Museum, “Peter Brook: An Awfully Big Adventure”)
#1 Best Overall
- Peter Brook's The Mahabharata - DVD Brand New
The film and television version
Brook’s film adaptation was made in English in a studio near Paris, with international actors and crew. It was a separate version from the stage production. The Foundation says the television version received the Prix Italia and an Emmy Award in 1990. The restored film premiered in the Venice Classics section in 2024, with restoration support from France’s CNC. The Foundation also describes a 20-minute standing ovation at the film’s 1989 Venice premiere. (Peter Brook Foundation, “8K Restoration”; Peter Brook Foundation, “The Mahabharata”)
Why the production supports a cross-cultural reading
The company’s international casting gave visible form to its effort to stage the epic beyond national boundaries. Its development also involved oral storytelling, translations, travel in India and sustained engagement with performance traditions. Those elements support the view that the production sought to open the story to audiences beyond one country or community.
Filmmaker Jag Mundhra, quoted in a 1987 Los Angeles Times report, put the case for cultural openness directly: “No one owns ‘The Mahabharata.’ No person, no culture, can keep a work of art.” That is an argument for the possibility of adaptation—not proof that every adaptation is equally informed, representative or welcome. (Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1987)
Rank #2
Why cultural ownership remained contested
The same 1987 report records disagreement among Indian and Indian American observers. Mundhra endorsed an international adaptation. Curator Pratapaditya Pal questioned Bruce Myers’s casting as Krishna and predicted resistance from Indian audiences. The report also includes an audience member who responded positively. The reception, therefore, cannot be reduced to either universal approval or universal rejection.
What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
The objection is not simply that outsiders should never tell the story. It is also about what changes when a particular version of an ancient South Asian epic is selected, translated and staged by a modern international company. Casting, language, the adaptation’s choices and the perspective it foregrounds all affect how audiences understand the result.
What later scholarship adds
So-Rim Lee’s 2018 article distinguishes the ancient Mahabharata from Brook and Carrière’s modern play and examines the adaptation through translation, adaptation and appropriation. It questions whether the production’s international, multiracial approach was as cosmopolitan as its creators claimed, and asks how the epic changes when reframed in Western terms. The question is not whether the production crossed borders—it plainly did—but whose interpretation shaped that crossing. (So-Rim Lee, “Translation, Adaptation, and Appropriation in Brook’s Mahabharata,” New Theatre Quarterly, published online January 10, 2018)
Rank #3
A practical way to weigh competing interpretations
Brook’s production is one adaptation, not a final answer to the question of ownership. When comparing interpretations of the Mahabharata, consider:
- Who adapts and performs it: Which artists and traditions shape the version?
- Which text and language it uses: What translation, retelling or selection of the epic is the adaptation drawing on?
- What it claims to represent: Does it aim to evoke a broader human story, represent a particular tradition, or do both?
- How people respond: What do audiences and scholars say about its artistic choices and cultural authority?
What the published play text represents
The V&A identifies the printed script, The Mahabharata: A Play, by Jean-Claude Carrière and Peter Brook, as Brook’s translation from Carrière’s French translation of the Sanskrit original. It is the text of this stage adaptation, not the complete Sanskrit epic or an unmediated translation from Sanskrit. (Victoria and Albert Museum, “Peter Brook: An Awfully Big Adventure”)
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
