Why Runs the Abhisarika – Melbourne Fringe Festival 2023

Melbournbe Fringe presents Why Runs the Abhisarika – a unique visual and oral storytelling performance with Indian dance and English spoken-word poetry about the simple neuroscience of passion. Created and Performed by Priyanka Jain

A sudden bolt of lightning flashes across the sky, sparking desire in a maiden’s heart and off she goes to meet her lover! Wait, playback and zoom in 1000x to exactly what happened within these milliseconds. This is a forensic investigation into why the Abhisarika runs. Audiences! Lets ask the witnesses- the trees of the forest, the snakes, the forest ghouls, the lightning itself!

Just like six blind men describe an elephant, each witness reveals a fragmented truth about its role in the Abhisarika’s iconography, elucidated in a song.