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The Kutiyattam Theatre coming to Washington, Virginia, is analogous to Bob Hope, Rudolf Nureyev and Kathryn Hepburn traveling to a little town in India to perform.
Almost.
Any comparison falls far short of explaining the matchless quality of this cultural event because there is no American counterpart to Kutiyattam Theatre. Hope, Nureyev and Hepburn are widely recognized as being the best at what they do, but they have hundreds of contemporaries who are in the same class. And while some may even regard the three stars as national treasures, they have received no such designation from the federal government. ■ The Kutiyattam Theatre has. What’s more, the practitioners of the world’s oldest existing story theatre number maybe a dozen. So a quarter of India’s national treasure will rest with Washington when K. Rama Chakyar, P.V. Eswaranunni and Anujan Ezhikode come to town on Sept. 15 and 16.
Kutiyattam incorporates drumming, chanting, dance, mime, elaborate costuming and stylized makeup to tell the traditional stories of India. It originated and is based still in Kerala, the spice garden of the world.
Centuries ago, adventures and traders from Phonenicia, China and Greece traveled to the rolling green hills of this rural state in southern India for spices; many stayed, adding bits from their heritage and traditions to an already thriving culture.
From the rich convergence came ^kutiyattam. The birth of this dramatic art form in the 10th century predates Noh, the precursor of Japan’s Kabuki, which is commonly — and incorrectly — accepted as the
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