Ramayana is an epic poem composed by Valmiki in about the 4th century B.C. in Sanskrit, and there exists centuries-old re-told versions of it in nearly every Indian language, all with their own variations of detail. I have based my dramatic adaptation on the novelist R. K. Narayan's prose version, which was in turn based on the Tamil version of the 11th century poet Kamban. In this sense, our version is in the spirit of the countless re-tellings of this epic tale both past and present.
My purpose while writing the script was to tell the main thread of the Ramayana story in as accurate a way as possible, paying fidelity to the way the characters are traditionally perceived in their original cultural context. There has been almost no attempt to offer any modern perspective on the characters. Whatever original elements there are in my characterizations have been the result of my dramatic imagination, fired by specific dramatic situations (but again, held in check lest this goes too far). The general thrust is simple: Rama is a hero because he is the god Vishnu incarnate. His purpose on earth is to defeat the force of evil represented by Ravana. All is pre-ordained, and everything that happens is part of the divine grand plan.
However, there remains the matter of Rama's puzzling behaviour at the moment of his reconciliation with Sita, a behaviour which some of the various re-tellings have tried to explain away or justify. In the traditional Tamil version by the poet Kamban (from which our re-telling claims lineage), even the god Brahma was mortified by Rama's behaviour and steps forward to remind Rama not to forget his divinity. This is perhaps the only moment that we have teased out, just a little. This, and making one of the key players, Lakshmana, narrate the story some time after the tumultuous events are over, is our contribution to possibly the first-ever recounting of the epic tale for the English stage in Singapore
– Sonny Lim (Playwright)
