Following on Olivier Py's comment in the accompanying story that "everybody" at last year's Avignon Festival loved Satoshi Miyagi's "Mahabharata — Nalacharitam," which Py, as the festival's director, had awarded the honor of opening the event, I rolled up to Shizuoka Performing Arts Center to find out how Miyagi, its artistic director, now views his production of that epic Sanskrit poem penned between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200 — and what he has focused on since.
Arriving at its main theater in Shizuoka City — where a banner announced "Connecting Shizuoka and the world with theater" — Miyagi met me with the same friendly smile that greets audiences to any of SPAC's indoor or outdoor venues. Then over coffee, he began to talk openly about his acclaimed staging of that monumental work.
"There's a notice board at the festival office where anyone can pin a note offering to buy or sell tickets," he said. "Happily it was full of requests to buy tickets for my play. And from what I heard, I think people of both sexes and all ages enjoyed it."
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