Mahabharata

In 1988 Peter Brook brought his austere, epic production of the Mahabharata to Glasgow.

This version is more of a Bollywood/Lloyd Webber version, full of colour and vigorous choreography, except that that in no way does justice to the powerful and complex music, staggeringly well played under the masterful control of Alies Sluiter. The mixture of Indian and western instruments is immensely powerful and what I took for some time to be pre-recorded, off-stage singing also proved to be coming from the pit. It's fantastic live music-making.

And what of the onstage spectacle? This re-telling of the enmity and open warfare between two Indian dynasties uses dance, movement, speech and a lot of cloth. Bolts of coloured fabric are transformed into rivers, walls, banners and, in a stunning piece of stagecraft, a seemingly endless white protection of a woman's modesty.

The almost entirely male company produce some wonderfully exciting dancing, particularly the stylised battle at the climax, accompanied by thunderous percussion from the pit. Strangely in a show so full of movement, the other, equally exciting, set piece is almost entirely static. A dice game in which a man loses almost everything and which we know is fixed should not make for thrilling theatre. Here, thanks to the intensity and subtlety of the ensemble work, it does.

There are moments when it teeters on the edge of cheesiness, particularly during the solo musical numbers, but it never tumbles over the edge and it always has something else moving or eye-popping up its sleeve. Gary Pillai is hypnotic as Krishna, the all-seeing blue god. I did find his philosophy of the warrior distinctly uncomfortable, but that was because it was delivered with such quiet, reasonable conviction.

Natasha Jayetileke is radiant as Draupadi, the young woman who finds herself married to five brothers, thanks to a careless wish from her future mother-in-law. The conflict she unleashes has echoes of the Trojan War and some of the hatreds and revenges feel quite Shakespearean, but the show's strength is that it powerfully and entertainingly allows us at least a part entry to its own source, the oldest and longest epic poem in the world.

This is a powerful, colourful and ultimately moving show which deserves to be seen.