Meanwhile, performances of Shakuntala and
Vasantasena along with various kinds of inspirations from Indian dance and music were being showcased on the stage.
KNOWN FOR: In 12 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, favorite roles have included the Witch in Into the Woods, Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra, Rosalind in As You Like It,
Vasantasena in The Clay Cart, and Maruca in Universes' Party People.
On Grieg's recommendation, the orchestral work
Vasantasena by Johan Halvorsen (1864-1935) was published by Peters.
It's full of names such as
Vasantasena, the heroine, and Charudatta, the hero, and involves exotic customs such as caste and polygamous marriage - not necessarily an easy sell to the gray-haired playgoers who keep the festival running in the black.
Some distant support for the notion of "five-nailed" as equivalent to "human/humanoid" may come from Sudraka's play, Mrcchakatika, where the villain Sakara refers to his dasanah[a]- [= dasanakha- 'ten-nailed'] hands (preparatory to strangling
Vasantasena) (Mrcch.
The hero is Charudatta, an impoverished Brahmin merchant, the heroine the lovely courtesan
Vasantasena. The villain of the play, Sansthanaka, the king's brother - in - law, smothers
Vasantasena in a remote garden and accuses Charudatta of the crime, but
Vasantasena recovers and appears just in time to save her lover from execution.