How is your "geijitsu no aki" going? If you haven't got out to enjoy the splendors of "artistic autumn" yet, the Ku Na'uka Theatre Company's new play, "Mahabharata-Nalacaritam (Prince Nala's Adventure)" is as romantic and colorful a spectacle as any laid on by nature.

Mention of a staged "Mahabharata" at once brings to mind Sir Peter Brook's 10-hour version of the Hindu epic poem, which debuted at the Avignon International Drama Festival in 1985. The inspired version now playing in Tokyo, however -- commissioned by director Satoshi Miyagi, Ku Na'uka's founder, from the pen of Azumi Kubota -- lasts just two hours.

That's no mean feat. The original "Mahabharata," written in Sanskrit, comprises 100,000 stanzas, making it probably the world's longest poem. This 18-volume work, which arrived at its present form around the fifth century, is filled with so much legend, philosophy and spirituality that it must have kept its translators through the ages busy for their whole lifetimes.