Adi Sankaracharya’s Shlokas chanted in London Theatres for first time

Mumbai: UK-based Indian poet-playwright Gopi Warrier’s two plays – “Ego of the Yogis” and “Polyester Lordship” – have evoked rave reviews in London.

Dealing with corporate responsibility and the search for spirituality reflecting contemporary times, the plays are being staged at the Steiner Theatre since April 1, said a statement.

Directed by Alex Crampton, the cast contains leading British actors and actresses including the beautiful Sarah Hall, classical actor Tim Heath, Sanjive Hayre (who has acted as Jawaharlal Nehru), Lloyd Morris, Gillian Kirkpatrick, Tim Hilborne and Paul Piggott amongst others. On selected days there will be discussions with writers, intellectuals, corporate leaders and spiritual teachers on the issues raised in the play. The premiere was marked by a brief talk by Sir Andrew Likierman, the Dean of London Business School and a Director of the Bank of England and Barclays Bank during the interval. On the premiere night, Miss Charlotte Endacotte, a leading British actress who played the lead role in several British plays including Shakespeare’s “As You Like it” and Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off ” introduced Sir Andrew Liekerman to the audience and also the cast and the director at the end of the show.

The two powerful plays, which deal with important contemporary themes, have been conceptualised by the legendary Gopi Warrier, whose exploration of Eastern and Western philosophies is an inspiration to many. Warrier evokes his unique presentation abilities to make people see through the shallowness of materialistic society and reach into our inner souls so tainted by the materialism of this world.

“Polyester Lordship” masterfully portrays the absence of corporate social responsibility to workers and consumers in the often corrupt world of international business. It debates International Business Corruption vs. Social Responsibility in the quest for peerage. “Ego of the Yogis” is a more regretful yet romantic evocation of the search for true love and of the contamination of yoga and spirituality in the Western world and in India, the original home of yoga. It is a timeless saga of an upper-class English woman’s quest for true love and spirituality in an utterly contaminated world.

For the first time, the great Sage Adi Shankara’s famous Sanskrit Poem “Kanakadhara Stavam” which he recites in the house of a poor woman who gives him alms is sung on the Theatre stage in London’s theatre stage in the play “Ego of the Yogis”. In the example of Adi Shankara is cited to show the detachment of great Indian Sages in comparison to the egotistical and materialistic pursuit of Yoga in the west. The writer very much wanted a singer from India to recite these and chose two leading classical singers from Kerala to sing this and some excerpts from the song of Vasavadatta as she waits impatiently for the monk.

Another important showpiece in the play “Ego of the Yogis” is that of how the latest Japanese research mathematically proves the illusory nature of the world as the Hindus always believed. The hologram of the illusory universe was designed for Warrier by Jon Bunker, the leading special effects director for Hollywood films who has worked on ‘Star Wars’ and with Tom Cruise and George Clooney. This is based on Hindu Yantras of the cosmos that are practically in every temple and on which the deities are placed. Creating the Kshetra – the force field of the temple. These Yantras are representative of the ‘maya’ – the illusory nature of the universe which Hindu philosophy has always espoused and has NOW BEEN MATHEMATICALLY and scientifically proven by the researchers at the Ibaraki University in Japan.

PLAY 1: “Ego of the Yogis”- Search for Spirituality in this Utterly Contaminated World
The play centres on an upper class English woman’s quest for true love and her search for a spiritual teacher. Disillusioned by her marriage she meets an Indian teacher briefly who tells her that all life is an illusion and only through yoga and meditation can one attain liberation from the cycles of birth and death. To find the teacher again she encounters a number of fake gurus and becomes more and more disenchanted with the contemporary world of spiritual seekers until her secret obsession is resolved unexpectedly.

PLAY 2: “Polyester Lordship” – International Business Corruption vs. Social Responsibility in the Quest for a Peerage

This play about the corrupt nature of many acquisitions and mergers, involving international businesses in most countries but particularly in Asia, takes the audience through the murky negotiations for the acquisition of an Indian textile factory. Aggressive executives from London deal with the shady underworld – but also honourable characters, both British and Indian, who demonstrate principled corporate responsibility to workers and the local community. An evolving relationship between two of the directors brings an element of love and compassion into the tense and very dangerous developments in the factory and the city of Mumbai as the deal progresses.