The Ramayana from a woman’s perspective: Gowri Ramnarayan’s play reimagines the epic

A play based on the women in Ramayana

The Ramayana, feels author, playwright, and journalist Gowri Ramnarayan, is dominated by male characters. “When you mention the epic, you think of male heroes. If Sita were not Rama’s wife, she wouldn’t be there,” she says, adding: “All the women in the Ramayana have subsidiary roles. They appear and disappear and are reflected through the male gaze.” In 2019, Gowri wrote a play featuring six women who play supporting roles in the Ramayana. Titled ‘What She Said’, it is now set to be staged for the first time in Coimbatore.

The play, that Gowri has directed as well, will be performed by actors Sunandha Raghunathan, Akhila Ramnarayan, and Aarabi Veeraraghavan. It will be accompanied by live singing by Srividya Vadlamani, with sound design by B Charles, the founder of Chennai Art Theatre. “I have written the play as six monologues,” says Gowri, adding that each actor will play two roles.

How would the women of the Ramayana see the story of Rama? This was among the first questions that surfaced in Gowri’s mind when she began writing the play.

“This is the first time I’ve written a play that focuses entirely on women,” she says: “For the actors themselves, this has been a journey of self-discovery.”

For the story, she has picked six women from “different levels of existence,” representing diverse backgrounds and origins. This offers viewers a chance to take in the epic through a different spectrum. For instance, how would it be if the Ramayana is seen from the perspective of Kaikeyi or Urmila? “You would see two different colours,” says Gowri.

Gowri believes that every story is complete only if it finds its listener. “For the actor speaking on stage, the play comes alive only when there is a listener; a community that will understand women’s perspective,” she says, hoping that ‘What She Said’ finds that kind of a community in the city.