The Huntington
A Work-in-Progress Presentation of A Mongoose Speaks
Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont Street
June 30 2025Growing up in India, playwright Mahira Kakkar found live performances of the Mahabharata spellbinding; now she’s creating a bold cycle of plays that center the epic’s forgotten voices and overlooked characters.
In A Mongoose Speaks, a little mongoose bears witness to a sacred sacrifice and he’s changed. His fur turns gold; his silence breaks into speech. No longer fully animal, not yet something else, he is caught half-transformed — uncertain and becoming. Told in lyrical dialogue alongside a live tabla player, the story is a funny and surprising exploration of selfhood, sacrifice, and the desire to evolve again and again into something more.
Written by Mahira Kakkar
Directed by Danilo Gambini
Dramaturgy by Amrita Ramanan
Featuring actor Sathya Sridharan and tabla player Upasak Mukherjee
Growing up in India, playwright Mahira Kakkar found live performances of the Mahabharata spellbinding; now she’s creating a bold cycle of plays that center the epic’s forgotten voices and overlooked characters.
In A Mongoose Speaks, a little mongoose bears witness to a sacred sacrifice and he’s changed. His fur turns gold; his silence breaks into speech. No longer fully animal, not yet something else, he is caught half-transformed — uncertain and becoming. Told in lyrical dialogue alongside a live tabla player, the story is a funny and surprising exploration of selfhood, sacrifice, and the desire to evolve again and again into something more.
Written by Mahira Kakkar
Directed by Danilo Gambini
Dramaturgy by Amrita Ramanan
Featuring actor Sathya Sridharan and tabla player Upasak Mukherjee
Calderwood Pavilion/BCA, 527 Tremont St
The Calderwood Pavilion contains the Wimberly Theatre, the Roberts Studio Theatre, the Carol G. Deane Hall, and the Nicholas Martin Hall. You should navigate to the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA if you are seeing a show in any of those aforementioned spaces.
Directions and parking for the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA
